Building Friendships and Raising Funds Through a Memoir Writing Group

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L1: Deep Dive: Building Friendships and Raising Funds Through a Memoir Writing Group

Learn about the unique platform a memoir writing group can add to your senior center. Through the written word, friendships are formed and stories are captured, and, with a motivated group of participants, there is potential to raise funds by publishing.

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

Design a memoir writing group to create a platform for friendship building in your senior center.
Explain the benefits of memoir writing and the expansion options outside of your senior center.
Assess the resources needed to support a successful memoir writing group in your senior center and evaluate the potential to raise funds and/or awareness.

Stephanie Pilato (Moderator)

Senior Director, Finance and Contract Management

National Council on Aging

Stephanie Pilato is a 15+ year member of the NCOA Finance department and enjoys working on the annual budget, forecasting, and assisting project managers with proposal budgets.

Linda Good PhD

Retired Professor

VINE Faith in Action

Linda Good, PhD, is the co-founder and leader of the VINE Memoir Writers Group. The group was formed after she retired as a professor of early childhood education in 2011. She has taught at The University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University, Minnesota State University, Mankato, and The Catholic University of Daegu, South Korea. She has presented both nationally and internationally before retiring. She is the author of two books for early childhood education and numerous journal articles. She was one of the contributing authors for the VINE Memoir Writers Group book, Preserving Memories. She also served as coordinator for the Memoir Writers Group book and contributed to proofreading, editing, and other tasks for the book’s production. She continues to write memoirs as a method of preserving personal herstory and to perhaps aid as a memory tool in the future should she develop memory loss. Besides writing, she enjoys family, friendships, quilting, travel, swimming, biking, and kayaking.

Melinda Wedzina MBA, MS

Chief Executive Officer

VINE Faith in Action

Melinda Wedzina believes strongly in giving back to the community she has called home for the past nineteen years. Determined to redefine aging and promote the wellbeing of aging adults, she currently serves as the CEO of VINE Faith in Action, a premier senior center and social service provider in southern Minnesota. Earlier, she founded and served as Executive Director of a childhood hunger nonprofit providing a backpack food program to over 900 local students before assuming the role of Chief Operations Officer at an employment and day service provider for people with disabilities -- one of Minnesota’s largest civic nonprofits. Melinda has made a career of enhancing the lives of others.

Melinda earned her MBA and MS in Strategic Management from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She served on the board of the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and taught as an adjunct business instructor at her local community college. She currently volunteers on two community nonprofit arts boards. In her free time, Melinda is avid reader and enjoys outdoor activities and traveling with her family.