photos by
Matt Rose

A record crowd of some 625 women—many of them carrying fabulous purses—turned out in June for the Power of the Purse, the Community Foundation of Western North Carolina’s annual fundraising luncheon at the Grove Park Inn. Human rights activist Nontombi Naomi Tutu, who grew up in South Africa and whose father, archbishop Desmond Tutu, famously battled apartheid there, spoke about women’s roles in societies around the world. Tutu, a single mother of three who lives in Nashville, recently taught courses on modern Africa and gender at Brevard College. At the luncheon, the Community Foundation auctioned off 34 art objects, including works by local artists. Asheville artist Wendy Whitson’s painting, Among Flowers, sold for $5,200, putting the foundation over the $1 million mark in raising funds for women’s causes in Western North Carolina. The foundation’s Women for Women fund announced $280,000 in new grants to Children First, Planned Parenthood and the Western North Carolina AIDS Project.