Welcome to the PWN Board, Mindy Kayser Vice President of Community Engagement, Mercy Medical Center Foundation

Mindy Kayser recently joined PWN in 2021 and we made such a great impression 🙂 she decided to commit to joining the board. We are so excited to have her!

Mindy has more than 20 years of nonprofit administration, marketing, communications and fundraising experience.

Her prior work history includes leadership roles with Operation Threshold (Waterloo), The Salvation Army (Cedar Rapids) and most recently before Mercy, Goodwill of the Heartland as Vice President of Marketing (Eastern Iowa). She started with the Mercy Foundation in October of 2020. Her role with Mercy focuses on creating greater awareness of the Foundation, including donor communication and promotion of hospital needs and giving opportunities. She also works with donors on making planned gifts.

Mindy holds an undergraduate degree in journalism and mass communications from Drake University and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Northern Iowa.

Mindy lives in Cedar Rapids with her family. Her favorite pastime is supporting her three boys in their interests and activities. She also enjoys volunteering for the causes she cares about.

Fun Fact: She has three rescue pugs – one for each of her boys.

Please introduce yourself at our next PWN Meeting on January 27th.

 

Find ‘The Want’! A Letter from our President, Jamie Meyers

Hello PWN Ladies!

THANK YOU for joining us on this ride that we will call 2022.  My name is Jamie Meyers, and I am THRILLED to be your President for the year.  We are starting off this new year by hopefully sharing some stories, some funny tidbits, and some of our hearts with all of you to grow together as one amazing group of badass women of PWN!  So … cheers to the revival of our blog! 

I want to start things off by saying most days I start typing something and I lose track of the first reason I started typing something, I start retyping a different topic, and then eventually remember the reason and come right back to that initial something … so enjoy the brain dump!  

There is something about starting a new year that feels like magic.  We know it is exciting … we get another chance to make the MOST out of the next 365 days.  We set goals, we set resolutions, we set goals and resolutions in our heads for our kids and spouses, then February 1st hits.  We find ourselves in the hamster wheel of our life and once again lose sight of the new promises, new resolutions, new goals we just set one short month ago.  What if there was a way, we could just choose to stay OFF the hamster wheel?????  OR at the very least … choose when we need to get off of the hamster wheel for just a brief moment to eat a carrot (or a taco in my case) and just breathe. 

My friends … we totally can do this!!!!!  I typed into google “What does it mean to have intentions?” and believe it or not, I hear the google-nator knows all. It answered me back with “to plan or want to (do something): to intend to (do something)”.  What about that???  It’s the WANT that maybe is the first step.  As yourself one question … What is 1 thing you WANT to change about your day?  You want to have more work-life balance, you want more time to read, you want to exercise, you want to go on vacation.  Ok … I feel your wants!  NOW … figure out the “next right thing to do” in order to put that want into motion.  Only YOU can define this next right thing.  Once you accomplish that … then get to the “next right thing” … and so on.  Go get after it, my friends!  Get off the hamster wheel with your want, keep your promise to yourself, grab your taco or carrot, and breathe.

I’ll leave you with this … we have a YEAR to accomplish our goals for this YEAR, so don’t go try to achieve all your life-long goals and aspirations by March … you’ll be tired … I’ll be tired … we’ll all be tired ?.  We are a powerhouse group of women who need to be there to help each other, build each other up, and push through this journey together.  

Keep rocking your January and 2022!

-Jamie