WOMEN LEADERS IN THE QUAD CITY AREA JOIN THOUSANDS OF WOMEN WORLDWIDE TO INVEST IN THE NEXT GENERATION

On Saturday, March 10, 2018 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m., approximately 60 established women leaders and high school and college-aged girls will join together at the Botanical Center in Rock Island, Illinois for the Quad City Area Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk, part of a global movement to inspire a rising generation through mentorship. The worldwide events are held in celebration of International Women’s Day. The Global Mentoring Walks started with one very successful, very busy woman. When Vital Voices Board Member and founder and former CEO of Oxygen Media, Geraldine Laybourne, found that her busy schedule could not accommodate meetings with the dozens of young women eager to seek her guidance, Laybourne began inviting these women on her daily morning walks. Seeing the power and success of this simple formula, she organized Mentoring Walks, and with the support of the Vital Voices Network, launched the first Global Mentoring Walks in 2008 to highlight the importance of mentoring and provide access to successful women. The initiative has grown, and this year over 150 Walks will be taking place worldwide in 60 countries to celebrate International Women’s Day. Eleven Global Mentoring Walks are taking place in the U.S. in cities such as Miami, Washington D.C., New York City, and Seattle. This will be the first ever held in the Quad Cities. The Quad City Walk is being organized by 18-year-old Clare VanSpeybroeck, an Alleman High School senior. Clare became involved with Vital Voices last summer when she was selected as 1 of 30 girls in the nation to be named a 2017 HERlead Fellow. Vital Voices Global Partnership and ANN INC., parent company of ANN TAYLOR and THE LOFT, sponsored her trip to attend the 2017 HERlead Fellowship Leadership Forum in New York City. Ms. VanSpeybroeck explains, “Through my experience at the Forum, I came to understand, on a greater level, the amazing and lasting  benefits of mentorship. My hope is for girls to form relationships with accomplished women to enable the success of the next generation. After all, ‘behind every great woman is another and another.’ ” Clare attributes many of her successes to the “incredible guidance and encouragement” she has received from her mentors: Diane Baker (4-H), Vickie Sedam (Royal Neighbors of America), and Maria Pecheco (Wakami Global). The Walk will celebrate the impact of “paying it forward,” what women can do when they band together, and that power expands when it is shared. The Global Mentoring Walk in Rock Island will feature prominent local women leaders who have been matched with the interests of the over 30 young women mentees, ages 16-24, who registered inadvance for the event. The girls will have the opportunity to be mentored by these established professionals in fields including healthcare, journalism, education, psychology, history, social work, speech pathology, and law enforcement. The young mentees will have the opportunity to network for future job or internship opportunities, receive career path guidance and college advice, and walk together with their mentors. The schedule will include opening remarks by Clare VanSpeybroeck, a short walk along the river, refreshments, time to network and a keynote address by Melissa Pepper, Founder of Lead(h)er, a mentorship program fueling career and community engagement for women in the workforce. Ms. Pepper is also Director of Marketing for Lane & Waterman, a full-service law firm based in Davenport, Iowa. The event is free to mentors and mentees thanks to the title sponsor, Royal Neighbors of America, one of the largest women-led life insurers in the United States. For more than 120 years, Royal Neighbors has been dedicated to protecting women financially and empowering them to improve their lives, families, and communities. Each registered participant also will receive a complimentary t-shirt commemorating the Walk courtesy of Royal Neighbors. For more information on Vital Voices Global Mentoring Walk in the Quad City Area, visit: https://www.GlobalMentoringWalkQCA.org Vital Voices Global Partnership Vital Voices Global Partnership is the leading non-governmental organization (NGO) that invests in women leaders who improve the world. Guided by the belief that women are essential to progress intheir communities, we partner with leaders from more than 181 countries and territories who advance economic opportunity, increase political and public leadership and end violence against women. Our programs in strategic planning, business, advocacy and communications build critical skills needed for creating transformational change at scale. Visit www.vitalvoices.org to learn more.