Anita Kartalopoulos is our Woman of the Week, nominated for her work as national Vice President of the Philoptochos. You see her here showing the Boca Raton, Florida, Philoptochos chapter members around the Philoptochos Center of Philanthropy in New York City and in 2019 at Ecumenical Patriarchate with His All Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew and her spouse, Dr. Stamatios Kartalopoulos during an Archons’ Pilgrimage. We asked her to tell you the path she took to becoming an executive officer of that powerhouse Greek Orthodox organization:
“My path to Philoptochos began in Toledo, Ohio, when I was still a child because my grandmother was one of the founding members of the chapter there. She would take me along to meetings, and I would watch what they were doing and still have images of these women meeting and addressing needs in the parish, and at that time also in Greece. They just were very strong, and they were the sole decision-makers regarding the matters they were discussing. Their idea was that every woman needs to be a member to continue to do this work. Those are my earliest memories of Philoptochos. I don't think I'm unusual: I think everybody gets their start at the local level either through meeting people who encourage them to participate, or they see some kind of event or project that sort of clicks with them. We have a broad range of causes and activities. For me, it was a family initiative where somebody was saying, ‘That matters to me a lot. You really need to be a part of this.’ The women I remember best were very impressive because they were doers within the embrace of the church. Keep in mind that this was the 1960s and these women were the ‘deciders’. It turned out to be a path that I found interesting and attractive: strong women meeting needs and doing for others.
“Then I married, we moved to places with parishes where we didn't know anyone. But we knew we'd be okay because we had a church and, of course, a Philoptochos Chapter. Even though I still had young kids and was in law school, we knew that so long as these elements were present in our lives, everything would be fine. A lot of things were going on in our lives, but I never lost that connection.
“I went onto the National Board in 1998, 25 years ago. To this day, I'm not sure who recommended me for the appointment. It may have been because, in the summer of 1998, my spouse and I made our first trip to the Patriarchate and met His Holiness. It was an amazing experience, a great blessing. I came back very energized, and I shared that with a lot of people.. They may also have been looking to bring in some new faces to the National Board. Whatever the case, I received a letter of appointment, and I accepted. I accepted because I had a lot of respect for the work that Philoptochos was doing. It was an honor to be appointed to the National Board and to have that opportunity to serve; it gave me a unique opportunity to get to know like-minded people from all over the United States, which is another of the great strengths of the Philoptochos.”
Axia!
Our Woman of the Week is Anita Kartalopoulos, nominated for her work as vice president at the national level of Philoptochos, the Greek Orthodox women’s organization. You see her here presiding as chair at the 2022 Philoptochos National Convention in NYC; with representatives from the IOCC, GOA, and National Philoptochos on a due diligence trip to fire-ravaged Evoia to confirm the need for financial aid; receiving the Centennial Honoree Icon from His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros at the 2022 Philoptochos National Convention; and standing with current National Philoptochos president, Arlene Siavelis Kehl, before a breakfast they helped organize for the Patriarch of Alexandria. We asked her to tell you about the kinds of projects that she has been involved in:
“The question that Philoptochos’ founders asked 91 years ago is the same question we ask today: ‘How can we help?’ What we're able to do today is to help in even more places, do even more things, and do them at a higher level than ever before. But we have never abandoned the areas where we helped from the very beginning, whether it was helping at the parish level, in a service-type fashion, whether it was the festivals, whether it was the makaries after the funerals to help comfort families, whether it was Holy Week decorating the epitaphios. We’ve never jettisoned any of that. We continue to do all of that, but we've added a lot more. We really try to meet society’s needs wherever they happen to exist.
“Our General Medical Fund lets us make medical grants all over the country. It is funded through our Children’s Medical Fund Luncheon which takes place every two years. This has enabled us to make a difference in the delivery of medical services in every part of the United States. International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) has been a great partner for 30 years. Working with them in collaboration with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese (GOA) allows us to make the greatest possible impact in a truly transparent fashion. We recently donated $200,000 that we raised for the victims of the terrible earthquakes in Syria and Turkey that happened in February, which brings our total right now to $250,000. Our work in Evoia, Greece after the terrible fires was also significant and done in great harmony with IOCC and GOA. We continue to support our widowed priests and presvyteres and we continue to support the children of Saint Basil and the Academy as a whole. We were major supporters of St. Nicholas National Shrine, having raised $2,000,000 for that effort. We continue to work with all those traditional causes and new ones as well.
“Very early on, I was appointed national legal advisor. We worked on lots of organizational matters, like updating our governing documents, making our organization more nimble, and improving it with every passing decade. In 2010, we were hit with what felt like a lightning bolt. For years, Philoptochos had maintained its national offices in space at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan Cathedral on 74th Street in New York City. But by that time, the cathedral was enjoying tremendous growth, and they needed their space back.
“Philoptochos works hard to help people experiencing homelessness everywhere–and now we were suddenly looking for a place to call home ourselves! But that also gave us an opportunity to think about what the next 10, 20, and 30 years for Philoptochos should look like. One of the things we decided was that we never wanted to be in a position to be looking for a home again. So, we engaged in a search for permanent space for a new national headquarters guided by good real estate advisors and a lot of prayer! Our members responded to the need. We quickly raised $2.1 million and ended up purchasing a terrific brownstone in the historic Murray Hill neighborhood in Manhattan. The asking price was $3.4 million, but we engaged in a good negotiation and got it for $3 million. We needed a $900,000 mortgage to complete the purchase, but within 14 months, we had paid it off. It’s a beautiful brownstone in New York City’s Historical District that is now our base of operations nationally and internationally. It is the Philoptochos Center of Philanthropy—PCOP for short! I really enjoyed that project, partly because it let me use a lot of my skills but also because we worked so well to address the issue, reach this new goal, and meet the needs of the organization: Philoptochos women addressing a need, assessing, implementing, deciding and resolving a major issue. That’s what we do. The day we did our Thiranxoia and Agiasmos were truly an answer to prayer! We’ve done so many things since then. Having our own home has allowed us to do so many more projects.
“Our current president, Arlene Siavelis Kehl, and I have been working closely for so many years. Our combination of skills has helped us to enhance our already existing practices. Her background is in medical devices, and she was the director of the international company Medline Industries.[1] With my legal background, we completely redid our approach to our requests for proposals (RFP), which helps us decide what we will fund, and we implemented it in connection with our Children's Medical Fund luncheon fundraiser and, of course, our Project review program which reviews grant applications. That gave us what is currently one of the most sophisticated, transparent, and accountable RFP programs for distribution, funding, and maintenance of grant accountability for the public good.
“Our members make the decisions about where the money is going to be spent–whether that’s on the local, national, or international level. But we also make sure that we know exactly how money is spent. We've had a clean financial track record throughout our 91 years. We are extremely careful, and we have been doing very high-level audits for many, many years. We are meticulous about both our fundraising and our accounting. We are also very transparent. We have long posted all our financials on our website for everyone to see. Because people trust the Philoptochos, they are generous. We receive a tremendous amount of money annually, and the majority of it is restricted funds. Line item by line item, those restricted funds are deployed only for the purpose for which they are collected. A hallmark of our financials is that they are whistle clean. Because we expect transparency and accountability, we give it as well. I will tell you that even when we make donations to the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, we get receipts. That practice regarding the GOA was instituted by Archbishop Elpidophoros, who strongly supports financial accountability. That practice has really raised the bar. It's good for everybody, and I think it's good for confidence in all the organizations we work with when we create that level of transparency and accountability.
“Our partnership with International Orthodox Christian Charities is a good example of how we have transparency and accountability, where they do their proper due diligence and identify opportunities where we can make a difference. We have a high comfort level when we partner up with them. We require that level of due diligence with any request that we fund. Another good example is our partnership with a small charity in Greece: The Constantinopolitan Society. We've funded them twice. They serve the needs of senior citizens who were displaced from Constantinople in Turkey around the middle 1960s. Those individuals had to leave Turkey with nothing. Most of those people were displaced at an age where it was difficult for them to get started again, find work, or get their papers to ensure they’d have a good retirement. They’re elderly now and don't have medical insurance or pensions, and because of the last economic downturn, many lost what little their family had accumulated. They're in tremendous need. Pursuant to grant requests that the Society submitted, we partnered up with the organization in Athens and–let me tell you–they do excellent work. They provide the same high level of transparency that we require of any US organization. They give us receipts as to where every dollar goes. A year ago, they requested funding for a food program that uses a voucher system. They account to us for every person that they provide for. We just funded them with about $12,500, which is enough to give food vouchers for four months to a discrete group of elderly people who need food assistance.
“We do an entire panoply of projects large and small. There is something for everyone to do who wants to be a member. You will find a place where you can make a difference for people, and you can have the satisfaction of knowing that both you and your work are appreciated and wanted. I mean, that's really what we're there for, isn’t it? To fulfill our Christian mandate to meet the needs of those around us. So that when the Lord asks us when we close our eyes, ‘What did you do? Did you feed the hungry? Did you visit the prisoner? Did you clothe the naked?’ We really want to give everyone the opportunity and the place where they can do all these things and answer to Our Lord: ‘Yes, I did.’”
As always, we asked our Woman of the Week, Anita Kartalopoulos, about her morning routine. You see her here in videotaping the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Centennial VIdeo at the Philoptochos Center of Philanthropy. In lieu of an icon corner, you see her in front of one of her favorite places in New York City, the newly rebuilt and reconsecrated St. Nicholas, with Bishop Athengoras, National Philoptochos’ spiritual advisor, and near Athens with an icon in a local chapel:
“Quiet time at the beginning of the day is key for me. I find that the prayer that starts ‘Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth…’ has become the place where I start everything. It just centers me. That's the first place to take a deep breath in the morning. I mean, you ask for the spirit of truth and, then you move forward from there. I say it in Greek because that’s how I learned it from my grandmother. It’s beautiful and asks for the indwelling and guidance of the Holy Spirit which we all need so much, don’t we?
“Then I look at whatever the Gospel reading of the day is. I need to pray so I can get centered and get focused because the rest of the day there will be a million things competing for my attention and for my time.
“I like to do my Bible reading in the morning, and I find that on the GOA app. There are also inspirational texts, and I try to focus on those if time permits. You know, that's one of the great things about the Internet. It is amazing. Sometimes it takes you away in 100 different directions, but it can also give you the tools to keep your eyes on the important things! Your smartphone can give you a quick path to get your focus in absolutely the right place. That allows me to think about what I need for that particular day, take a deep breath, and then move forward.”
Thank you, Anita!
