MAY 14, 2009 ISSUE
Westglow's Bonnie Schaefer To Receive National Women’s Award
Bonnie Schaefer of Blowing Rock and Boca Raton, Fla., is to receive the Ms. Foundation Woman of Vision and Action Award at a ceremony in New York on May 21.
Schaefer, owner of Westglow Resort & Spa, will receive the honor for her varied philanthropic work for women, the arts, for animals and for Jewish causes.
In the High Country, Schaefer is known among other things for her support of women through the Appalachian Women’s Fund, which focuses on improving the lives of women and girls through grants, mentoring and advocacy. Schaefer is a founding member of this group and is also a supporter of the Power of the Purse of the High Country Women’s Fund, which helps women take major steps out of poverty.
She is a member of An Appalachian Summer’s board, a supporter of ASU’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust and Peace Studies, and has given the seed money to build the first synagogue in the High Country.
Schaefer helped sponsor Eleganza!, an endowment fundraiser for the Hayes Performing Arts Center. She is also sponsor of the Blowing Rock Art History Museum’s gift shop, dedicated in honor of her father, Rowland Schaefer, who founded Claire’s Stores Inc., from which Schaefer retired in 2007.
Schaefer has been a lead sponsor for many years of the Watauga Humane Society’s Fur Ball. A major donation in 2007 has contributed greatly to the construction of the new shelter for dogs, cats, horses, deer, ferrets and other animals the Humane Society cares for. An avid horsewoman, Schaefer has also offered a challenge grant to the Blowing Rock Equestrian Preserve to raise funds to build new stables and an indoor equestrian arena.
Active politically, Schaefer is an ardent supporter of women’s rights. Through the Women’s Media Center in New York, she works for greater visibility and power for women in the media. Schaefer is also a new member of Women Moving Millions, a partnership of donors, the Women’s Funding Network and its member funds. As co-creator of the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition’s Run/Walk, Schaefer served as honorary chair for eight years. Schaefer co-chaired the Ms. Foundation for Women’s 2007 Gloria Awards with her sister Marla and served as honorary chair of the awards with her sister in 2008.
Schaefer also works with Equality Now to improve conditions for women and girls around the world and has traveled with Gloria Steinem and Equality Now staff to Nepal and Zambia to attend conferences on human trafficking. In November 2008, she brought this work home to the High Country as a lead sponsor of an Equality Now conference in Blowing Rock, which screened for the public the movie Trade about the trafficking of women for the worldwide sex trade.
Schaefer serves on the host committee for the Women’s Division of the Weizmann Institute of Science, one of the world’s leading research and development centers in medicine, the environment, agriculture and physics, and was honored as a Woman of Vision by the Weizmann Institute in 2000. She is also on the board of trustees of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
Schaefer is a graduate of the University of Miami and Skidmore College and also studied in Florence, Italy through the Florida State University Overseas Study Center. From late 2003, Schaefer was co-chairman and co-CEO of Claire’s Stores Inc. with her sister Marla. During their tenure, the company’s shareholder value increased approximately 200 percent.
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