Local charity 100 Faithful Friends Donates Money To St. Clair Butterfly Foundation

TROY, MI — You can do a lot with $8,900. And the local organization 100 Faithful Friends sure did something very cool with the $8,900 they raised - they donated it to the Auburn Hills-based St. Clair Butterfly Foundation, which will use the funds to help at-risk youth develop coping skills and discover their potential through the creative arts.

100 Faithful Friends was created by Steve and Nancy Benedettini and Lana Doneth in 2015. They were inspired by friends who were members of 100 Women Who Care, a group of 100 women who each donate $100 to a charity. While every penny helps a charity, the thinking is that combining all those pennies together in one big donation allows a charity to do more faster. Benedettini told Patch "I was going to do the '100 Women' group and my husband was going to start a '100 Men' group and we thought let's just do it together and call it 'Faithful Friends.' It's open to men, women, couples, children and families. We have a faith component and anyone is welcome."

In just the year it's been operating, 100 Faithful Friends has grown to 94 members and has donated $30,000 to Southeast Michigan charities. The group meets quarterly, and members are encouraged to present a charity they have a personal tie with and that's deserving of funds at each meeting. Votes are anonymously tallied, and the winning foundation gets the cash.

A very cool thing about 100 Faithful Friends is that their donations directly impact local groups that desperately need money. Benedettini says, "The charities that usually are picked are a little bit smaller charities where our donations really make a difference. $8,900 to a huge organization like the Red Cross would do nothing for their budget. But to the St. Clair Butterfly Foundation $8,900 is huge to them. It's exciting collaboratively giving a nice chunk of money to very needy causes and causes you'd never know of."

Want to join 100 Faithful Friends? The next meeting is Dec. 14 from 7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Kensington Church, Room 212, 1825 East Square Lake Rd. in Troy. If you want to know more, call or email Benedettini at 248-608-8980 or nancybenedettini@gmail.com.

Photo courtesy of Nancy Benedettini