Ladies’ night out fundraiser seeks to ease students’ financial strife

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A nonprofit organization that raises funds to help children of workers seriously injured or killed on the job is hosting a ladies’ night Thursday in Woodbury.

The SFM Foundation, which was created in 2008 by SFM Companies, a regional workers’ compensation insurance group headquartered in Bloomington, is hosting the event.

The foundation awards scholarships that range from $500 to $5,000 each, said Marcy Plitzkow, event coordinator for the foundation.

“Every year we do a golf event to raise funds for the scholarships,” she said. “This is our first year we’re doing a ladies’ night event.”

The Ladies Night Out event will be held from 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, at Prestwick Golf Club in Woodbury.

It will be an evening of shopping, massages, salon services, mini spa treatments, appetizers, beverages and a silent auction.

More than 25 vendors will be there selling jewelry, housewares, purses, accessories, food, clothing, cosmetics, scrapbooking supplies, homemade goods and other gifts.

Plitzkow said organizers thought the event will reach a wider audience in addition to the annual golf outing held at Prestwick as well.

She said the SFM Foundation typically focuses on agencies the parent company does business with.

“This is a way to reach people outside of the industry,” she said.

Money raised at the event will go straight to the scholarship fund established by the foundation, which is completely volunteer-oriented, Plitzkow said.

She added that students submit applications on a regular basis and their parents who are injured or killed on the job don’t have to be insured through the parent company.

“So far in the past four years we’ve awarded almost 40 scholarships and we’ve raised about $285,000,” she said.

The scholarships go to students from all over Minnesota and Wisconsin. Students don’t have to re-apply every year they’re in college as long as they maintain a certain grade-point average and stay enrolled.

Although the SFM Foundation did not provide a specific number of applications seeking financial help from students in Minnesota whose parents were killed or seriously injured on the job, Plitzkow said “It’s actually pretty common.”

“There is no certain industry or employer that’s more than another,” she said. “There are a lot of claims every year, but we don’t have numbers on how many are catastrophic in nature.”

Students submit letters with their applications, oftentimes explaining their experience getting a second job to help support their families while maintaining good grades the same time, Plitzkow said.

“Their stories are amazing,” she said, adding, “In many cases they may not even afford to go to college.”

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