Girls Incorporated of North West Oregon: Inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold.

2007 Celebrity Designers

Joan Tate Allen, Co-owner
Windermere Cronin & Caplan Realty Group
Angela Batinovich, Owner, Portland Lumberjax
Lucy Brennan, Owner, Mint Restaurant
Kevin Cook, Entertainer, aka Poison Waters
Gun Denhart, Founder, Hanna Andersson
Avel Gordly, State Senator
Sheila Hamilton, Afternoon Personality, KINK radio
Bonnie Laing-Malcolmson, President, Oregon College of Art & Craft
Natali Marmion, Anchor, KATU TV
Bonnie Pavel and Jaime Pavel, Pavelcomm
Emily Powell, Director, Powell's Books
Julie Stott, Philanthropist
Arlene Schnitzer, Philanthropist
Gus Van Sant, Film Director
Nicole Vogel, Publisher, Portland Monthly
Malia Wasson, President, OR, SW Washington, US Bank
Ted and Katrina Wheeler, Multnomah County Chair and Wife
Sherrie Wolf, Artist

Power of the Purse Auction and Dinner 2007

April 5th, 2007, 5:30-9pm
Portland Art Museum

Power of the Purse 2007 was a great success with fundraising goals exceeded, and a wonderful time had by all. This year 22 girls were selected to model the beautiful, one of a kind handbags that were auctioned. With Rebecca Webb of KINK FM, and our very own Girls Inc. girl, Sidney Greenslate, serving as emcees, the night was a delight. Through the efforts of our staff, our celebrity and designer teams, our volunteers, and our girls, we raised $120,000 that will all go toward supporting programming that teaches girls how to be strong, smart, and bold! We hope to see you next year!

Check out at the purses created for this year’s event!

To find out how the girls were chosen to model, read below:

We have 750 local girls participating in our programming this year. So how did we decide which of girls would be involved in Power of the Purse?

Every Girls Inc. girl was invited to participate in an essay contest for a chance to model a celebrity’s purse. Each girl entering was asked to write an essay answering the following two questions:

Why should your community invest in you?
What have you learned in your Girls Inc. group?

The Girls Inc. staff then read the essays and selected 22 of the girls to be models, based on the quality of their answers. Though the decision was challenging, the girls chosen wrote persuasively and passionately about their experiences with Girls Inc. programming and their role within the community. The girls you see tonight are strong, smart, and bold, and are thrilled to have a chance to share their stories with you.

Special thanks to our supporters:

Charles Fine Art Portraits

To make sure you get on our mailing list and are invited to this year's event -- email your contact info to Girls Inc at info@girlsincnworegon.org.

Photos: Charles Waugh Portraits