|
Retired Social Worker’s Gift Puts YWCA Campaign Over The Top <
Back to news
|
|
People Retired Social Worker’s Gift Puts YWCA Campaign Over The Top
February 2, 2010 Charleston Gazette
Charleston, WV
Written By Sara Busse –Staff Writer
Mary Fayne Glotfelty spent a lifetime helping abused and troubled women and children.
As a social worker, she went into homes, she went to court, she did what it took
to take care of those in need.
Her late husband, Charles, was a true gentleman. "Especially around women," she
said. Charles Glotfelty, who worked as a chemical engineer for DuPont, died a year
and a half ago.
They both worked and saved, neither coming from wealth but each with a good job
and a good work ethic.
In honor of her life's work and in honor of her husband's gentle spirit, Glotfelty,
88, recently gave a surprise donation to cap the YWCA $2 Million Challenge Campaign.
The fundraising effort, led by Elizabeth Pellegrin and Freddy Davis, attracted nearly
500 donors. But with a deadline looming this past December, the fund was $200,000
short.
That's when Sue Sergi stepped in.
Sergi, president of the Charleston YWCA board of directors, worked under Glotfelty
in her first job as a child welfare worker in 1969. She conceded she was intimidated
by Glotfelty as her first boss.
"She was always beautifully dressed, and she knew so much. Eventually, we got to
know her and became friends. I learned quite a bit from her," Sergi said. She told
Glotfelty about the YWCA's programs that benefit women and that's when the idea
of the gift came about.
"I think the YWCA does a beautiful job, and I wanted to honor my husband with this
gift," the modest Glotfelty said of her $200,000 donation. "When I found out they
needed this to reach their goal, I had to do it. He would have been pleased."
Glotfelty grew up in Fairmont. Her father died when she was 4, and her mother raised
her and her sister as a single, working woman. Glotfelty gives her mother high praise
for being such a role model. She went to Stephens College in Missouri and then earned
a master's degree in counseling and social work from West Virginia University. She
was a social worker in Kanawha County for years, eventually training other young
social workers across the state.
"It's shocking the number of people who are abusing children," Glotfelty said. "Physical
as well as sexual abuse. I believe the mental abuse is worse than the physical abuse.
Emotionally, to tear a child down. It's cruel."
She said that maybe now the public is more aware of the incidents, but it's been
happening for a very long time. Glotfelty shook her head, recalling one case that
has stayed with her over the years.
"A man thought his solution to teaching his son to be toilet trained was to put
a chemical in the boy's pants, so that if he wet, it would burn him," she said.
"I remember taking the boy to the hospital, with the skin just falling off. It was
horrible.
"But it doesn't just happen in poor families - it's congressmen. It's football players.
It's widespread," Glotfelty said. Her passion for social work is evident.
It was through dance that the 32-year-old Mary Fayne met Charles. She was certified
as a Latin and American dance teacher and taught at Lucas Studio in Charleston for
years. She first taught young cotillion attendees to dance, but moved into adult
classes later.
"The men who worked at DuPont were jealous of the Carbide boys, because DuPont was
so far out there they didn't get to meet many girls after work. By the time they
got finished with work, the women were already home. So he came, with his friends,
to the dance studio to meet girls," she said.
Was Charles a good dancer? "Well ...," she said with a girlish giggle.
Charles "bugged me and bugged me to get married. I was in no hurry," she said. "I
traveled right out of college - Asia, Japan, India, Vietnam, Europe. I wanted to
see how other people lived. I would always ask them about their education systems,
about their cultures."
While the Glotfeltys didn't have children of their own, Mary Fayne is proud of her
sister's children like they were her own.
But social work was her calling, and she still talks about the pressures on children
today. "Parenting now - well, it must be a nightmare. The peer pressure," she said.
Glotfelty is active in the volunteer community, working as treasurer of CAMC General
Hospital's volunteer group.
The $2 Million Challenge started with a gift from the Lyell B. and Patricia K. Clay
Foundation, with the goal of matching the $1 million Clay gift with money from other
sources.
Pellegrin said the 18-month campaign reached its goal with a record number of new
givers. Individuals, corporations and foundations all donated.
"In one case, a corporation - Mattress Warehouse/IMS - made a $40,000 gift to sponsor
the bedrooms at our Hope House shelter for victims of domestic violence - and will
be donating new bedding to the bedrooms, too." Another $200,000 donation came from
the Mel Wolf Foundation.
The YWCA Resolve Family Abuse Program's activity center on Charleston's East End
will now be called the Glotfelty Center, and the former YWCA Child Enrichment Center
will be affectionately named "Mel's Place" (The YWCA Mel Wolf Center for Child Enrichment).
Glotfelty's nephew, Tom Bargeloh, visiting recently from New Mexico, described his
aunt's interest in the services provided by the YWCA.
"She fought this thing - abuse - all her life through her work," Bargeloh said.
"Now she's fighting it through funding."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
iMS (Mattress Warehouse & Sleep Outfitters) began doing business in November of
1983 out of a single retail store located in South Charleston, West Virginia. From
this single location start...
Click Here
to Read More
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sleep Outfitters is a growing, multi-state, chain of retail sleep shops. Recognized
nationally as a leader in the retail bedding industry. We are always seeking highly
motivated, dedicated, and responsible individuals to join our organization...
Click Here to Read
More
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
In 1983, Kim Knopf responded to a newspaper ad for a salesperson in a bedding shop.
The interviewer's enthusiasm for the prospects of the business sparked her determination
to run a shop of her own rather than someone else's...
Click Here to Read More
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|