On Saturday, February 23rd, 2019, Maternity Care Coalition (MCC) brought together over 300 professionals, volunteers and philanthropists from across Southeastern Pennsylvania for the 15th annual Celebrating Mothers Brunch. The event was held for the second year at The Bellevue Hotel in Center City Philadelphia and honored Teresa Miller, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services. Guests were welcomed with live music from the Dan McCain Quartet and passed mimosas while perusing the silent auction and making new connections.
Marianne Fray, MCC’s CEO provided remarks on the status of the organization. She was proud to announce MCC’s new VP of External Affairs, Caren Moskowitz, and shared how key partnerships, both internal and external, are crucial when it comes to MCC’s impact in the community. Additionally, Marianne announced our 40th Anniversary campaign by celebrating our founders and encouraging the crowd to get involved in upcoming activities to celebrate the milestone.
Included in the program this year were presentations from MCC staff members who were previous clients. Jeree Davis, Early Head Start Family Advocate, and Maggy Saad, MOMobile Healthy Families America Family Advocate both gave impactful speeches on what their experience was like as an MCC client, the impact MCC has had on their families and how they are helping other MCC clients as staff members.
Annually, MCC is proud to honor an individual or organization working to promote maternal and child health and wellbeing who has made a significant difference in the lives of pregnant women and families in a unique and extraordinary way. This year’s esteemed honoree was a perfect fit as recipient of the award due to her for her work supporting children, families, and communities in Pennsylvania and the awareness she has brought to the benefits of home visiting.
Secretary Miller noted in her speech “my primary message today is that as mothers, we need to give ourselves a break and support each other. We need to acknowledge that it’s hard being a mom and whether we like it or not, even in 2019, moms still bear the brunt of raising kids in addition to working, going to school or anything else we do in our lives. Raising a child is still primarily on moms. And, that’s not to diminish the role dads play. But, it’s to acknowledge the reality of the role moms play.”
She even brought her daughter, who has benefited from the support of a home visitor to the event to support her.
The Celebrating Mother’s brunch would not be what it was without the exciting Fund-a-Need portion of the program. MCC was thrilled to welcome veteran auctioneer, Steve Katz, to our podium this year to energize guests and raise crucial funds for MCC programming.
MCC thanks all sponsors, attendees and donors who raised over $126,000 in support of families in Southeastern Pennsylvania. We would again, like to thank our Spirit of Motherhood sponsor, Penn Medicine for the decades of partnership between our organizations.
Next year, MCC celebrates it’s 40th Anniversary. Please stay on the lookout for additional information as we celebrate and reflect on this impressive milestone!
To view pictures from this year’s event, please head to our Flickr account by following the link here.
To view the slides from this year’s event please click here.
