Jan. 5, 2015

Gala to Remember

Synergistic trio

plan gala to

support Fresh Start

Women’s Foundation

A dynamic trio of women have rolled up their sleeves to orchestrate the 19^th Annual Fresh Start Fashion Gala. Katie Scardello, Meghan Grabel and Gena Bonsall, with the help of dedicated board and auxiliary board members, plan a memorable event to tell the story of Fresh Start Women’s Foundation through a beautiful evening.

(left) Katie Scardello, Meghan Grabel and Gena Bonsall

Each brings her unique expertise to her role as co-chair, each is passionate about her support of Fresh Start, and when they are together, the room crackles with an energetic synergy.

Grabel, an attorney, is the general manager of rates, pricing and revenue at Arizona Public Service. She’s a newcomer to the Fresh Start family, having attended the gala for the first time in 2014. “I was immediately hooked,” she says. She had previously served on the Children’s Museum of Phoenix board with Scardello, who she knew was on the board of Fresh Start, and she quickly tracked her down and volunteered her services to Fresh Start.

Scardello is senior vice president and senior client manager at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “I want to make sure every dollar we raise is well spent. That’s my job. The gala is our main source of funding for the center,” she says, noting that about 30 percent or slightly more of Fresh Start’s annual budget comes from the gala.

Bonsall, who is now a consultant, formerly served as director of the Arizona State University Foundation. She has served on a number of boards and a host of major fundraising committees, has been associated with Fresh Start almost from its inception, and knows how to make a party fabulous.

Fresh Start

Their motivation is the compelling Fresh Start story. The organization was founded by sisters Pat Petznick and Beverly Stewart in 1992 to help women who, through a change in life circumstances, suddenly become the sole support of their families. From initially offering a day of pampering at Rolf’s Salon, then co-owned by the sisters, Fresh Start is now housed in its own building, the Jewel McFarland Lewis Fresh Start Resource Center in downtown Phoenix, and operates on a several-million dollar annual budget.

The organization, whose motto is “Helping Women Help Themselves,” provides employment workshops and career coaches; mentoring; a computer-equipped, internet-accessible library; and scholarships for higher education. When women visit the center for a class, free childcare is available.

“Fresh Start works on personal development,” Bonsall says, “not just on getting a job. They try to work on the whole person. Once a woman is healed in that way, she is more likely to go out and get a job and be successful at it.”

Fresh Start provides the help many women need to leave an abusive relationship, to learn a career skill or to gain confidence by creating a positive self-image. All of Fresh Start’s services are free or low cost.

The Gala

What started 19 years ago with a fashion show in Saks Fifth Avenue’s rotunda and a tent where the store’s current men’s department is has grown into one of the Valley’s most successful fundraising galas, and this year’s event promises to build on that success.

To support the work of Fresh Start, Grabel, Scardello and Bonsall have put together a “Gala to Remember.” The honorary chair is baseball Hall of Fame manager Joe Torre. Torre, who experienced family violence as he was growing up in Brooklyn, wants to educate children about the issue of domestic violence, and in 2002 he and his wife, Ali, created the Joe Torre Safe At Home Foundation. Torre will speak at the Feb. 21 gala.

Kimberly J. McWaters will be honored with the Founders’ Award at the gala. McWaters is the chairman and CEO of Universal Technical Institute. She has not only served on the Fresh Start executive board for more than a decade, but also is familiar with the issues faced by women who utilize Fresh Start’s services. At the gala kickoff luncheon in November, she spoke about her time as a young single mother who took a job as a part-time receptionist with UTI, worked her way up through the ranks of the company, earned a degree in business, raised three children and eventually became the company’s chairman and CEO. Guests at the gala will learn more of her inspirational story.

They will also learn about the employees, volunteers and people who are served by Fresh Start through the evening’s very current theme: #myfreshstartstory. The Twitter link is ongoing.

A New York-style fashion show will be presented by long-time Fresh Start partner Saks Fifth Avenue, and the Los Angeles band Impulse will pull guests to the dance floor.