Hood River’s Sophie Caldwell, a junior at Oregon State University and the daughter of Hood River restaurant owners Shawna and Mike Caldwell, recently earned a $5,000 cash award from Women for Women During COVID (WWDC), with help from Soroptimist International of Hood River. She is one of three women throughout the nation to win the award.
Sophie Caldwell
WWDC, an initiative of the larger non-profit Possibilities for Women, is a scholarship program for working women already enrolled in college who have lost their job or suffered significant cuts in hours and pay due to COVID. They faced the possibility of dropping out or postponing their education goals because of a lack of funding. Women from throughout the United States were invited to apply.
Caldwell has worked at her family’s restaurant since she was 14, and at other restaurants while in college. With the hospitality sector of the economy in tatters during the pandemic, Caldwell was not sure how she would be able to pay for school. “Winning the Women for Women During COVID Scholarship will allow me to accomplish numerous goals,” Caldwell said. “$5,000 allows me to remain enrolled in school next year. It means I will be able to study more and worry a little less about working. $5,000 means I can focus on advancing my career goal to own my own landscape design business. Without this scholarship, I would have to put my nose down, find any job that pays enough to help with the bills, and also try to stay in school.” According to the WWDC website, women make up the majority of students forced to drop out of school due to job loss.
Locally, two professional women, Rebecca Chown and Victoria Hopkins, heard about the national scholarship and decided to help raise funds and invite local women to apply. An online raffle for prizes, along with personal and business cash donations, raised nearly $3,000 from the Gorge community. The final $2,000 for Caldwell's award came from Soroptimist International of Hood River, part of a global volunteer organization that provides women and girls with access to the education and training they need to achieve economic empowerment. Because of an inability to raise many funds during the last year, individual members chose to donate from their own wallets to bring the award to the full $5,000. “Our members were inspired by Sophie’s desire to complete her education and by the dire straits she and her family were put in because of the pandemic,” said Soroptimist Hood River President Pennie Burns. “We pulled together and gave what we could from our own pockets. This group never ceases to amaze me!” For more information about Soroptimist Hood River, go to soroptimisthoodriver.com or to their Facebook page.
The Caldwell family reopened their Hood River restaurant, Stonehedge Gardens, for dine-in seating a few weeks ago. Caldwell will start working there in late April and complete her spring semester online.
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