Earlier this year, our very own Karen Bdera was featured in the Winter 2011 edition of “Take Note,” the alumna newsletter from The Ethel Walker School, Karen’s high school alma mater.  The newsletter featured many powerful alumnae of the school and Karen’s profile, among the many, stands out.  We proudly support the article and Karen here, please read the excerpt below: 

“Karen Polcer Bdera ’79 had an epiphany in 2007.  Then she quit her job.

 Her corporate, for-profit job in the New York fashion world was not the footprint she wanted to leave as a legacy.  ‘Selling fashionable widgets wasn’t the karmic outcome I wanted.’

 A dedicated volunteer for the Avon Walk since the late ’90s, Karen had been very successful at helping the organizers drum up both revenue and enthusiasm.  When in 2008 she resigned from her corporate job without a ‘next move,’ a friend at Avon Walk told her about a 10-week consulting job at God’s Love We Deliver.  Karen’s karma had been delivered.

‘[It] is so deeply satisfying to be able to have an immediate impact on saving lives every day.  This isn’t about widgets.’

Karen’s contribution is in event production, managing every detail of the organization’s four signature events: a Hamptons cocktail party, a literary luncheon, a gala awards ball, and the Race to Deliver in Central Park.  Karen says, ‘My experience at Walker’s as the Ferguson stage manager, of never being on the stage but running the whole show, was the perfect training.’  In fact, Bdera credits all of her experience at Walker’s as leading her to her work with God’s Love We Deliver.  “Approaching and solving tough problems was something I learned at Walker’s and I use that knowledge every day in my work to change how others view sick people.

‘We deliver much more than a meal,’ says Karen.  ‘We are a community and our clients are people who need respect, dignity, friendship, and sometimes a lifeline.'” 

We at God’s Love We Deliver are so fortunate to have Karen on board here as Coordinator of Special Events and Volunteer Services and we couldn’t be happier with such a caring, enthusiastic, and skilled colleague and advocate.  Karen is on the front lines for April’s Authors in Kind, our literary luncheon, our summertime Midsummer Night Drinks, the Golden Heart Awards in October, the Race to Deliver in Central Park each November, and so much more.  Way to go, Karen!

Excerpted from: Winter, 2011 edition of “Take Note” from the Ethel Walker School