July 2023 President’s Message
“As a little girl, Erin always wanted to be a nurse. She is a 5th generation Tuolumne County native, attended school in Tuolumne County and graduated from Sonora High School...”
Read on for more about Erin’s story!
The Tuolumne Women’s Network has been around since the 1990’s and we are a California Non-Profit Public Benefit Corporation. One of our main purposes is to make available scholarships to assist women, who have demonstrated an aptitude and an interest in furthering their education. We assist women returning to school, aged 24 years+ and residing in Tuolumne County. We have two scholarship rounds where women can apply for our scholarships. One is in the Spring with a cut off date April 1st, and the second is in the Fall with a cut off date of October 1st. Our scholarships are funded by our annual fundraiser and we strongly depend on the community to help us raise that money. If you're like me you like to see end results. Where did my dollars go when I contributed to a fundraiser? Well here is an example of a woman the network helped by giving her two scholarships. Meet Erin Gray! This is her success story...
As a little girl, Erin always wanted to be a nurse. She is a 5th generation Tuolumne County native, attended school in Tuolumne County and graduated from Sonora High School. She became a single mom at the age of 19 and had a beautiful baby girl named Taylor. She didn’t pursue schooling because she didn’t think she could be a mom and a student at the same time. It would be tough! She got married, gave birth to her son, Lance, and raised her two children with her husband for the next few years. She divorced and like a lot of women went back into the workforce. She started and succeeded at different jobs throughout the years from managing an insurance office to managing a branch of a local bank. But, the medical field was ALWAYS on her mind! She knew that helping others was a forever passion of hers. She decided to go to school in 2016 and took General Education classes. In January of 2019, she worked at Inner Sanctum Cellars Winery and was told about the TCWN Scholarship opportunity by me, Karen Mariano-Luckhardt. She applied and received her first scholarship in 2021 and started working towards obtaining her medical certificate. She took classes here and there as time would allow. She applied again in the Fall of 2022 and received the first ever John Egger Memorial Scholarship Award. This scholarship was established to honor the late John Egger. Erin was over the moon to receive this important scholarship. She graduated with her Associate's Degree on April 28, 2023 from Modesto Junior College. She finally reached her dream that she had as that little girl of 12 years old!. She is now successfully giving back to this community and is currently the Medical Assistant for the Diabetes Resource Management Program with Adventist Health in Sonora. She loves helping people with their health challenges especially in the area of Diabetes. Erin continually praises the Women’s Network for helping her achieve her goals.
Our next opportunity to raise much needed funds for scholarships just like Erin's is RIGHT around the corner! Please get your tickets now for our annual Wine Down Wednesday, benefitting the TCWN Women's Scholarship Fund! Invite your friends, family, co-workers and neighbors. Let's continue to help women in our community achieve their goals and reach their dreams.
CLICK HERE to purchase tickets today!!Cheers,
Karen Mariano-Luckhardt, President