Denver Family Fund Bolsters Wyoming Women's Foundation
Casper Star Tribune
Casper, WY
October 21, 1999
Page B1
By DEIRDRE STOELZLE
Star-Tribune staff writer
CASPER — A Denver family's pledge of $500,000 is being used to launch a Wyoming foundation geared toward improving the economic status of women and girls.
The advisory board of the Wyoming Women's Foundation held its first meeting Wednesday at the Petroleum Club here. The foundation will operate under the umbrella of the Wyoming Community Foundation in Laramie.
Wednesday's meeting was attended by Merle Chambers of Denver, the president of the Chambers Family Fund, which promises to match up to $500,000 in donations to the new foundation.
A donation of $55,000 by advisory board member Kathy Priebe of Casper is the first contribution to the fund. Another $445,000 must be raised in order to qualify for the Chambers grant.
The Chambers family operated an oil and gas business in four Western states including Wyoming under the name Axem Resources.
"A long time ago, I had an idea of giving back to some of the places we had gotten our oil production." Chambers said of her desire to help launch the new foundation.
"I knew, as someone from Denver, that it couldn't be mine — I couldn't run it. But it needed a home, and it had to be run by people in Wyoming who are responsive to Wyoming needs."
She also said she hopes the seed money her family has offered "expands women's philanthropy" in Wyoming.
Since 1987, Chambers has presided over the Women's Foundation of Colorado, a grant-making organization of the Chambers Family Fund with an endowment of more than $10 million. The Colorado group focuses on women's and girls' economic issues through grant-making and supporting education and job-training programs, she said.
Chambers sits on the hoard with five other women: Priebe; Val Burgess of Sheridan; Georgie Crawford of St. Stephens; Rev. Marilyn Engstrom of Gillette; and Jackie Freese of Rock Springs.
The board is charged with assisting with fund-raising, setting grant-making priorities and reviewng requests for funding.
The group's current priority is fund-raising, Priebe said. "It'll need some amount of time (to grow)." she said of the fund.
A computer software engineer, Priebe expressed the depth of the commitment she and the other women are making to maximize the foundation's start-up effort.
"I think you make time, because this is something that's a rational decision, but also an emotional one," she said.
Liz Storer Fassett of the Wyoming Community Foundation said the women's foundation expects to award its first grants next year and that non-profit groups interested in applying should call the community foundation in Casper at 577-0648 or in Laramie at 721-8300, or e-mail the group at (wcf@vcn.com).