Hanif on Media

(My feature article in The Coastal Star newspaper, January 2010.)

“The triumvirate,” is how an admiring colleague described them. “They all work together so much that as far as the Women’s Circle is concerned, they’re kind of inseparable,” said fellow volunteer Mary Crawley.

That would be the Women’s Circle whose Circle of Hope dinner gala fundraiser, Feb. 8 at Benvenuto in Boynton Beach, will profit from the toil of many volunteers, not the least its co-hosting trio of Eileen Augustyn, Helen Babione and Peggy Martin.

The nonprofit organization provides educational and employment tools that let South County women break their cycle of poverty and help their families.

Board member and fundraiser Augustyn, of Gulf Stream, “puts a lot of hours into this,” said Crawley. “She’s always on the phone and doing a lot of face work. I don’t know how she has any free time to do any fun stuff.”

Though heavily invested in the Women’s Circle, Augustyn also has been a stalwart for the Bethesda Hospital Foundation and other efforts.

She served as a trustee during the not-for-profit hospital’s recent $100 million fundraising drive. The founder of the foundation’s Magnolia Society contributes countless hours each year for the Women of Grace committee. In October, in recognition of her work, she was named one of Bethesda’s Women of Grace.

Augustyn also worked closely with Caridad Ascensio in the 1990s as a board member in developing the Caridad Center health clinic for migrant farm workers and their families.

Her volunteerism dates even beyond her 1980s public service in Illinois.

“It was my parents, who by example, taught me the importance of giving voluntarily, sharing my time to help people,” Augustyn said.

Her gala co-chairs’ service is similar.

It was Babione, of Boca Raton, who introduced Augustyn to the Women’s Circle.

Martin, of Delray Dunes in Boynton, has worked with Augustyn on Caridad and Women of Grace, and for several years has co-chaired the circle’s fundraising event.

That’s significant because the Women’s Circle, founded in 1999 and co-coordinated by Sisters Joan Carusillo and Lorraine Ryan, is solely dependant on grants and donations. In September, with a $100,000 interest-free loan from the Boynton Beach CRA, it purchased a duplex that doubles the size of the current cramped space it shares. The duplex next needs renovation into offices and classrooms.

Enter the volunteering triumvirate. “I am always learning something new that enriches my life,” said Augustyn.

“And you meet the nicest people!”

Eileen Augustyn, Helen Babione and Peggy Martin were nominated to be Coastal Stars by a fellow volunteer, Mary Crawley.

For more information on the Circle of Hope fundraiser, contact 272-3965 or lcrcjam@aol.com.