heart of a woman luncheon - News - The Coastal Star2024-03-28T23:50:39Zhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/heart+of+a+woman+luncheonPay it Forward: AVDA fundraiser to focus on MeToo with address from founderhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/pay-it-forward-avda-fundraiser-to-focus-on-metoo-with-address-fro2019-01-29T19:30:00.000Z2019-01-29T19:30:00.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><em><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960837260,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960837260,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="400" alt="7960837260?profile=original" /></a>Co-chairs Anne Vegso and Jeannette DeOrchis both have pins recognizing their volunteer work on behalf of abuse victims. Photo provided</em></p>
<p><em><strong>By Amy Woods</strong></em><br /> <br /> Two leaders of South County’s philanthropic community have stepped up to co-chair this year’s Heart of a Woman Luncheon in Boca Raton.</p>
<p>Anne Vegso and Jeannette DeOrchis will lead the annual fundraiser for Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, or AVDA. Both have received the Woman Volunteer of the Year Award — one of the most competitive awards of the season — from the Junior League of Boca Raton for their work on behalf of the Delray Beach nonprofit.</p>
<p>“It is going to be amazing,” said Vegso, who won the award in 2005. “We have a great group of women on our committee, No. 1, and it is a fabulous organization, No. 2. Jeannette and I both feel very strongly about our mission and that we really are making a difference in the lives of these victims.”</p>
<p>AVDA promotes violence-free relationships by offering programs and services that help women and children in harm’s way. Proceeds will benefit its 24-hour crisis hotline, emergency shelter, transitional-housing facility and educational outreach efforts in Palm Beach County schools.</p>
<p>“The money goes straight to where it needs to be,” said DeOrchis, who was named Woman Volunteer of the Year in 2018. “It’s really a hand up instead of a handout.”</p>
<p>She should know. From age 4 to age 12, she was abused by her father and, as a young adult, married a husband she feared was going to kill her.</p>
<p>“I wondered if I would make it out of childhood alive. I wondered whether I would make it out of my marriage alive," DeOrchis said of her first marriage. I decided that for the rest of my life, I would help these poor women and children so that they would no longer have to feel that way.”</p>
<p>She joined AVDA’s board in 2010.</p>
<p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960837661,original{{/staticFileLink}}" target="_blank"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960837661,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-left" alt="7960837661?profile=original" /></a>“It gives me great peace and happiness to know that I’m helping women and children who are in even more desperate circumstances than I was,” DeOrchis said. “So many women are understanding that they don’t have to take it anymore.”</p>
<p>Keynote speaker is Tarana Burke, founder of the MeToo movement, who will share the story behind its genesis. Recognition will go out to survivor and activist Julie Weil, Palm Beach County Victim Services and Rape Crisis Center, and Ruth & Norman Rales Jewish Family Services.</p>
<p>“We talk about the wonderful triumphs we have with the shelter and how many people we’re saving,” DeOrchis said. “It’s a real atmosphere of hope."</p>
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<p><strong>If You Go</strong></p>
<p><strong>What:</strong> Heart of a Woman Luncheon</p>
<p><strong>When:</strong> 10:30 a.m. Feb. 28</p>
<p><strong>Where:</strong> Royal Palm Yacht Club, 2425 W. Maya Palm Drive, Boca Raton</p>
<p><strong>Cost:</strong> $175</p>
<p><strong>Info:</strong> Call 265-3797, ext. 100 or visit avdaonline.org.</p></div>Coastal Star: Mom teaches daughter joy of helping others as they volunteer for AVDA togetherhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/coastal-star-mom-teaches-daughter-joy-of-helping-others-as-they-v2018-01-03T20:06:12.000Z2018-01-03T20:06:12.000ZThe Coastal Starhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/TheCoastalStar<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960771883,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960771883,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-center" width="600" alt="7960771883?profile=original" /></a><em>Barbara Rodriguez works at Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa (above) and lives in Highland Beach. With AVDA, she helps to throw parties for children at shelters. <strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>By Rich Pollack</strong></p>
<p>Barbara Rodriguez wanted her daughter, Gabby, to understand the importance of helping others and to recognize that other children exist who are less fortunate. <br /> “I wanted to find a place in the community that would give her a sense of perspective,” Rodriguez said.<br /> So soon after the single mom moved to Highland Beach from the west coast of Florida, she and Gabby began volunteering for the Delray Beach-based AVDA, Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, visiting a shelter one day a month and helping throw parties for children there. <br /> Now 4 1/2 years later, Rodriguez, 39, and Gabby, 16, still make their monthly visits, bringing pizza and cake, celebrating the children’s birthdays and just having fun. <br /> “I started out volunteering there to be a good role model for my daughter,” Rodriguez said. “I try to show her that giving is very important.” <br /> The lesson seems to have stuck, since both Gabby and her mom look forward to their visits and make it a point to be there every month, if possible.<br /> “Gabby has discovered that she enjoys working with children,” says Rodriguez, director of national accounts for Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa. “She’s shown a lot of interest in a possible career working with kids.” <br /> Because of her commitment and efforts on behalf of the organization, Rodriguez was asked to join the AVDA board of directors a year and a half ago.<br /> “It’s great to get to know the community leaders on the board and to learn from their experience,” she said. <br /> Next month, Rodriguez and several other members of the AVDA board will attend the organization’s Heart of a Woman Luncheon, an annual fundraiser that will be Feb. 28 at Royal Palm Yacht Club in Boca Raton. <br /> Chaired by Jeannette DeOrchis, Rosemary Krieger, Anne Vegso and Gail Veros, the event, which celebrates the strength, courage and determination of women, will feature Melissa Dohme Hill as the guest speaker. <br /> Hill was stabbed 32 times by a former boyfriend. She tells her story and speaks out against domestic violence. <br /> Rodriguez says the stories she hears from survivors at the luncheon are both eye-opening and inspiring. <br /> “It teaches you that this can happen to anyone and it reinforces my belief that this is a worthy cause to be associated with,” she said. <br /> While growing up, Rodriguez witnessed domestic violence in her neighborhood and in her own home. <br /> “I saw my mom going through domestic violence,” she said, adding that she also knew neighbors who were physically abused. “Sometimes it becomes part of your norm until you grow older and you realize it’s not right.” <br /> Seeing the physical and verbal abuse has been part of what motivates Rodriguez to support AVDA and to share her passion with her daughter, as well as with friends and co-workers. <br /> “It has given me the strength to be involved and to speak up for people who struggle every day,” she said. <br /> A graduate of University of Sacred Heart in Puerto Rico, where she studied media and public relations, Rodriguez began her career in the hospitality industry at an early age, making change in a casino at 19. <br /> There she met people from all walks of life and learned a valuable lesson about working with and helping others. <br /> “People all want to feel important and connected,” she said. “They want you to recognize them as a person and treat them with respect.” <br /> While her original motivation in volunteering for AVDA was to help her daughter, Rodriguez says that she too is benefiting from the experience. <br /> “It fills my heart when I’m helping other people,” she says. “I get more than I give.”</p>
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<p><span style="font-size:14pt;"><strong>If You Go</strong></span><br />11th annual Heart of a Woman luncheon benefiting AVDA<br /><strong>When:</strong> Feb. 28<br /><strong>Time:</strong> 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.<br /><strong>Where:</strong> Royal Palm Yacht Club, Boca Raton<br /><strong>Who:</strong> Melissa Dohme Hill, guest speaker<br /><strong>Tickets:</strong> $175 per person<br /><strong>More information:</strong> Call 265-3797 or visit <a href="http://www.avdaonline.org/heart-of-a-woman">www.avdaonline.org/heart-of-a-woman</a></p></div>Coastal Star: Survivor of abuse co-chairs event to help others like herhttps://thecoastalstar.com/profiles/blogs/coastal-star-survivor-of-abuse-co-chairs-event-to-help-others-lik2015-12-30T16:42:38.000Z2015-12-30T16:42:38.000ZChris Felkerhttps://thecoastalstar.com/members/ChrisFelker<div><p style="text-align:center;"><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}7960617262,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}7960617262,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="7960617262?profile=original" /></a><em>A domestic abuse survivor, Jeannette DeOrchis will co-chair AVDA’s Heart of a Woman Luncheon on Jan. 20.</em></p>
<p style="text-align:center;"><strong>Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star</strong></p>
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<p style="text-align:left;"><strong>By Rich Pollack<br /><br /></strong> Jeannette DeOrchis has a great career as a certified financial planner and senior vice president at a large financial services firm. <br /> She has a strong marriage to one of the top surgeons in his field and has been honored for her work in the community. <br /> She is also a survivor of domestic abuse, both at the hands of an often brutal father and a former husband.<br /> More than a decade after the end of a drawn-out divorce, the coastal Delray Beach resident continues to be an inspiration to others who have endured emotional and physical abuse.<br /> DeOrchis, a board member of Delray Beach-based Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse — known as AVDA — will co-chair of the organization’s Heart of a Woman Luncheon this month, highlighting its 30 years of serving the community. <br /> For DeOrchis, who joined the AVDA board in 2010 after working with the organization for several years, her involvement is as much a tribute to those who were on her side during the dark years as it is a way of showing others that adversity can be overcome. <br /> “To me, it means everything to help women and children in the community who need help,” she said. “I was poor and abused. Being that so many people helped me rise from the desperate circumstances I was in during my childhood and my marriage, I wanted to help others in similar situations.”<br /> DeOrchis is grateful to those who were by her side during her years of living in fear. <br /> “Any person who ever helped me, I am beyond thankful,” she said. “It was as if they had handed me a Tiffany diamond.”<br /> DeOrchis grew up in a tough section of Pompano Beach in a home where abuse was a constant. <br /> “It was pure hell,” she says. “Every night was World War III. Coming home from school I never knew what I would encounter.”<br /> School became a refuge for DeOrchis, who read voraciously and discovered a particular interest in numbers. <br /> “At 10, it occurred to me that I had to somehow escape,” she said. “I discovered the concept of finance.” <br /> For two years, she skipped lunch at school and saved her lunch money, hiding it behind a picture frame in her room. Her goal was to save enough to get a ticket to Massachusetts, where she could live with an aunt. But by the time she had enough money, her father had gone and she no longer needed to leave.<br /> Because her grades were so good, DeOrchis was able to earn a full scholarship to American University in Washington, D.C., where she studied finance and graduated cum laude.<br /> She returned to Florida and met her first husband, whom she married at 25. Emotional and psychological abuse started a year into the marriage and eventually turned physical. <br /> After six years, DeOrchis filed for divorce. During the two years it took for the divorce to be finalized the psychological abuse became severe. <br /> “I was afraid during the divorce,” said DeOrchis, who for privacy purposes requested that her age and her employer not be disclosed. “It’s a terrible feeling to be hunted like an animal.” <br /> There was a point, she says, where she obtained a restraining order with the help of AVDA and considered going into hiding. <br /> “I was very close to moving into the shelter,” she said. <br /> Today, DeOrchis is married to her husband, Doug, a surgeon, whom she knew from her days at American University. They had lost touch for 28 years until about six years ago and were reunited when he moved to Florida to work at a local hospital and discovered she was still here. <br /> Despite all the adversity, she is not surprised by the successes she now enjoys. <br /> “As a child, I would say prayers to God to help me escape and at the end I would say I just know that somehow my life is going to be better.”</p></div>