Our Story

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2008 – Girls Rule was born with the passion of 4 women who wanted to make a difference for girls
2009 – Laura Anderson, co-founder, unexpectedly passes away
2010 – The Laura Anderson Scholarship Fund was created
2011 – 2012 – Continue to grow our workshop, continue to define our mission, & our vision
2013 – Dena Patton, co-founder, solely takes Girls Rule on and turns it into a 501c3
2014 – Works on creating 2 new programs and creating brand awareness
2015 – Creates infrastructure, internal systems, measurement/outcome systems, website and programs
2016 – Hold 1st summer camp, start fundraising, starts movement
2017 – Tweak and tightened up all 3 programs, continues fundraising and building our board
2018 – Hosts over 16 programs & 5 fundraisers, launch Tshirts, build community outreach, builds brand & impact, dreamLAB beta launch
2019 – Continued growing the 3 programs, Strategic year working on our Board, Launched dreamLAB leadership afterschool program, launched our new website
2020 – Unfortunately had to cease all in-person programs (3 of the 4) and cease fundraising events due to COVID-19
2021 – Continuing outreach and promotion of girls advocacy through our social media, added the middle school leadership kit for dreamLAB
2022 – Continuing outreach of girls advocacy through our social media and speaking nationwide, continuing to grow the dreamLAB leadership program
2023 – Continues social media and speaking, Oct 11 we host Rise Dinner Parties our first fundraising in 3 years to help us rise and continue our work

About the founders:

The four founders originally met in 2004 when they were involved at an Arizona-based girl’s charity.

But when their mutual interests to empower girl’s leadership skills found them wanting more direct training around self-esteem and leadership they decided to create something of their own.From that experience, in 2008 they took their inspiration and determination and created The Girls Rule Foundation focusing on empowerment, leadership and SEL education for girls.

The founders are business owners, professional trainers/coaches, girlfriends and most of all, passionate about making a difference for teen girls. Together they created the Girls Rule Signature 2-hour Dream Big workshop and Shine Brightly Conference.

Laura Anderson passed away unexpectedly in 2009 of complications of Lupus. It was a devastating time, and Girls Rule wasn’t going to continue. However, in 2010 we decided to create The Laura Anderson Scholarship Fund to honor her legacy and use the dollars to scholarship girls to attend our programs who otherwise couldn’t afford to attend.

In 2013 Dena Patton solely continued Girls Rule as her philanthropy mission and took on the task to grow our reach and our mission to impact more girls to help them build bright futures. In 2016 we launched our 8 day leadership summer camp and in 2019 we launched our first ever after-school program called dreamLAB which is our 12 week leadership club for girls.

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