WOMEN’S STORIES AND FIGHTS AN INSPIRATION
PASSION, power, purpose and progress – the women of our city are certainly a force to be reckoned with. The stories behind this year’s Gold Coast Women of the Year finalists and winners are as diverse as their careers and backgrounds, with achievements, motivation and ingenuity that will take your breath away.
Athletes, entrepreneurs, businesswomen, charity dynamos, driving forces of art and culture – these women represent the best of the Gold Coast’s spirit of showing initiative and innovation, and of taking care of one another when times are tough.
The words of Harvey Norman CEO Katie Page, describing her experience in not being the brightest girl at her select school in Sydney, are poignant in the context of many of the stories of these remarkable women and girls: “I learned early that you are not going to be top of the tree all the time, that you’ve got to fight.”
We all have our fights in life – some in harsher conditions and against bigger foes than others – but it is the way we conduct ourselves in these stoushes which largely decides the course of our lives.
That has certainly been the case for 2021 Woman of the Year Jane Holmes, whose lot in life could well have set her on a different path.
An unfathomable number of traumatic events, not least of which was the heartbreaking discovery of her husband after he’d taken his own life, have punctuated life for the motherof-three.
But it is these setbacks that have propelled Ms Holmes into a life of care and compassion through her charity Support the Girls Australia, which provides underwear and selfcare packages to women who would otherwise go without basic dignities most of us take for granted.
She estimates she has given away more than 5000 of the packs.
In between managing the complete business and operations side of Support The Girls, Ms Holmes facilitates face-to-face support for families as a suicide counsellor; lectures in PTSD; and works as a paralegal specialising in historical institutional abuse cases.
Like many of our finalists for Women of the Year, she hopes her story will inspire other people.
“For me it is more important someone can see my story and go ‘I can do this for myself’,” she said.
“They can say ‘If she can fulfil her dream, I can fulfil my dream’.”
What a formidable woman and a deserving winner.
Congratulations and heartfelt thanks to all the 2021 Women of the Year Award winners – the Gold Coast is a better place because of every one of you.
1048
Benedict IX, known as the “Boy Pope” and notorious for his scandals, resigns from the papacy and is driven out of Rome. 1819
The first savings bank in Australia is founded by Barron Field and Robert Campbell in Sydney, Parramatta, Liverpool and Windsor. It is ntended “for the receipt of the savings of the industrious poor” and is known as Campbell’s Bank. 1900
Cleansing operations in Sydney to wipe the city of the bubonic plague are finished.
1917
The British royal family adopts the name Windsor and renounces all German titles. 1961
About 1000 migrants from eastern Europe stage a violent protest at the migrant hostel at Bonegilla in Victoria, about the lack of work.
1991 Commonwealth Bank shares go on sale in partial privatisation. 2009
Suicide attackers set off bombs in Jakarta in two luxury hotels frequented by Westerners: the RitzCarlton and the J.W. Marriott, killing seven people, including three Australians, and wounding more than 50.
2014
Malaysian airlines Flight MH17 is shot down by pro-Russian Ukrainian rebels over the Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard.
2019
Mexican drug cartel head Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years in New York and ordered to forfeit more than $12.6bn.
2020
Princess Beatrice, daughter of Prince Andrew and Sarah (nee Ferguson) marries Edoardo Mozzi.