Mary Jones - Speaker on May 20, 2025

Mary Jones is the host of “All About Women” on WENG in Englewood. Her show is a positive, uplifting women’s lifestyle show focusing on issues of everyday life. She had done a similar daily, 3-hour show in CT for many years before relocating to Fl.

She is co-author of “Incredible Life”, contributor to “The Power of Persistence”, which reached #1 in Amazon’s self-improvement category, and Editor of “Women and Friendship”.

She also did a weekly segment on NBC CT for several years.

Make a Dinner Meeting Reservation

May 2025 - President's Message

Thank you to all who came to BPWEV’s Meet and Greet on 4/22/2025 at Artur’s Restaurant in Englewood. I believe we had (20) attendees, and we obtained (6) new members that applied and have joined our local organization. A special thank you to Meggen Urka, Cyndy Fredericks, Debbie Straw, and Kim Storie for blasting the flyer all over Facebook, Next Door and several other social media sites.

The theme I heard throughout the night was,” I never heard of your group.” It was hard for me to believe this, as BPW has been around for 119 years plus many of our members have been in the group for 25 plus years. My hope is that we continue to spread the word about the benefits to belonging to our professional women’s group. There are so many issues still at stake in our country: Equal Pay, Equal Rights Amendment passing in all 50 states, and women pay the “pink tax” or gender base pricing for healthcare, personal care, clothing and housing. Women earned 83 cents to what men earned in 2023. BPWEV advocated for all these issues, and we offer adult learners’ scholarships for those that are returning to higher education to improve their chances of obtaining better employment opportunities. The deadline for scholarship application is May 16, 2025. Both the criteria and the application can be found on the bpwev.org website.

Our speaker for the May 20th meeting is Mary Jones, who is the host of “All About Women” on WENG Radio 107.5 & 98 FM/1530 AM. Please make your reservation today. The meeting will be at Artur’s Restaurant at 70 N. Indiana Ave., Englewood, FL 34223. I believe that Mary represents so much of what our organization promotes.

Respectfully Submitted,
Sue Hogrefe, President of BPWEV

2025 BPW Adult Learner Scholarships

Christine Davis Memorial Scholarship

For those of us who never knew her, I’d like to take a moment to introduce the lady our scholarship awards are named after.

Christine Davis was a BPW member for over 50 years, first in New York State and later in Florida.  Her energy to promote BPW was astounding. She served in every office the organization had to offer, short of State or National President. She served on many committees and especially enjoyed being chair of the scholarship committee until ill health required her to resign from too many obligations. Her beautiful smile, her eagerness to be always willing to help and her efficient handling of any task she elected to do or help with, will not be forgotten by the BPWEV members, but will be missed.

The Christine Davis Memorial Scholarships will preserve the love and devotion she championed to achieve equality for all women.

Public Policy Platform 2023-2024

At the BPW Florida State Conference in June, 2023, the Proposed Public Policy was presented and approved. The new Public Policy for 2023 – 2024 is below:

Introduction:

Since the inception of BPW/FL in 1919, BPW/FL has always supported women’s rights. BPW/FL continues to support the ERA as a basic foundation of our Public Policy Platform, even as we understand that passing the ERA grows more difficult with the passage of time. BPW/FL firmly believes that equality of rights under the law should not be abridged or denied by the United States or by any state on account of sex, and the rights of women require constant vigilance.

Item 1: Economic Equity, Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency

BPW/FL supports public policies that:

• ensure pay equity and equal employment opportunities for all women
• promote opportunities for women-owned businesses
• promote affordable, quality dependent care
• promote Social Security and retirement reform options benefiting women
• guarantee a workplace free from harassment and discrimination

Item 2: Health Care

BPW/Fl supports public policies that:

• support the expansion of affordable care, including Medicaid, in Florida
• support funding and initiatives the cover women’s health care needs
• ensure women’s access to all health care and family planning needs, including full access to all forms of reproductive health services, education, and prescriptions

Item 3: Voting Right and Access

BPW/FL supports public policies that:

• promote free and fair elections
• are aimed at expanding voters’ access to the polls
• are designed to protect the right of all American citizens to vote in fairly drawn legislative districts