Young ATHENA winner surprised at work
— Kristen Dyke thought Monday’s meeting at the Child Abuse Prevention Council, for which she is president of the board, was to discuss agency business. That was just a ruse. In the conference room, her husband Gerrit, dad Charlie Smith, CAPC staff and members of the Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce gathered to surprise Dyke as 2017’s ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Award winner.
Looking stunned, she wiped away tears, accepted a bouquet of flowers from selection committee Chairwoman Judith Buethe, and smiled broadly.
Selected from what chamber President Diane Vigil said was stiff competition, the 36-year-old Dyke is the ninth recipient of the young ATHENA award, which honors the “next generation of women leaders in San Joaquin County,” aged 18-40, according to the chamber website. Nominees must demonstrate excellence, creativity and innovation in their business or profession; provide valuable service to improve the quality of life for others in their community; and serve as role models for young women personally and professionally.
“I’ve known Kristen many years and I’ve always been impressed with her unselfish commitment to other women,” said Kristen Spracher Birtwhistle, who nominated Dyke. “She’s just a kind person. She’s a woman who opened her own business. She’s helped other women, had young women who interned with her. The award is based on women helping women. She’s a good role model, a great person, a lovely person. We’re fortunate to have someone of her caliber in our community.”
In announcing the award, Vigil told Dyke, “You’ve done a lot for our community, for children in our community, women in our community. I think of you at chamber events, out there selling ducks. You never stop.”
The ducks are a reference to the Ducky Derby, featuring a flotilla of plastic ducks Dyke heard about and turned into a fundraising event for the Child Abuse Prevention Council.
Contributing to programs that help children — she’s also on the Child Alliance Task Force for San Joaquin County — is especially important to Dyke, she said, because she and Gerrit have two young sons, 5-year-old Grant and Noland, 2.
“I want to make sure they’re growing up with children who are contributors to society,” Dyke said. It’s how she grew up. “Definitely my parents (inspired me),” Dyke said. “We were in Girl Scouts. My brother was in Boy Scouts. We did a ton in the community. My dad would always volunteer at the school; he would mow the field for field hockey or coach.”
Field hockey is what brought Dyke to Stockton. She played the sport at University of the Pacific and majored in graphic design. She met Gerrit Dyke, who identifies as a “townie” because he was from Stockton, and after graduation she worked for different companies doing graphic design and marketing.
Eight years ago she met another “townie,” Erin Giles, a graduate of the Art Academy of San Francisco. The pair started Port City Marketing Solutions, with Giles doing the art and Dyke the marketing programs. Many of their clients are nonprofit organizations.
After her morning at CAPC, Dyke was scheduled to help at a photo shoot at Visit Stockton.
She maintains her ties to Pacific by sitting on the Pacific Athletic Foundation Board and is part of The Eleanor Project, named for Eleanor Roosevelt and dedicated to the former first lady’s commitment to serving and promoting women.
The ATHENA may have stunned Dyke — and she said she was honored — but dad Charlie Smith said it wasn’t her first honor.
That came, he said, when she was 7, the only year she played soccer, and she was the team MVP
Dyke remembers designing a button for her elementary school that the school made and sold.
It wasn’t her first artistic venture, though.
“She made me a Christmas card when she was 5 with a Christmas tree on the front, and inside it said, ‘I love you Dab,’” Smith said with a laugh.
He was most proud, though, of his daughter being named the top female athlete and academic graduate of the Class of 1999 from Prospect High School in Saratoga.
Until maybe Monday, when, once again, his daughter’s many good qualities were honored.
Dyke and the ATHENA Award winner, to be announced later this week, will be honored at a luncheon at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 16 at Stockton Golf & Country Club. Tickets are $40 and must be reserved through the chamber website, stocktonchamber.org or by calling 209-547-2770.