Women’s Leadership winners to walk the red carpet
Nominees receive notifications from MP Maryam Monsef
Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef is holding a gala at Showplace in October to present awards to local women for outstanding community work.
On Oct. 27, the Peterborough-Kawartha MP will be presenting the first Peterborough-Kawartha Women’s Leadership Awards.
This public event is expected to feature a red carpet photo session, live music and an award ceremony, states a letter Monsef sent out to nominees on Thursday.
Monsef announced the new award in March at her Rural Women’s Summit at the Buckhorn Community Centre.
The idea is to recognize excellent community service, she said at the time, and also to ensure women can serve as role models.
Although nominees received their notification letters last week, no list of those up for awards was available from Monsef ’s office on Monday.
Ryan Young, special assistant to Monsef, said the nominee list is being kept as a surprise to build anticipation for the event.
But some women announced their nominations on social media last week, including marketing educator Sofie Andreou, Kawartha Now publisher Jeannine Taylor and Innovation Cluster marketing manager Rose Terry.
At least two nominees posted their nomination letters from Monsef on social media.
In the letter, Monsef asks nominees to bring family and friends to the public gala — and also to invite a young person to come as their guest.
“You and the other nominees are role models for young people in our community, and I hope that by bringing a youth – friend, neighbour or family member – that we can use this opportunity to engage them with the best of our community now and into the future,” Monsef writes.
Nominees all live, work or study in the riding of Peterborough-Kawartha. There was no age restrictions, and the award is for one person (no group or paired awards).
Nominations were open from March 2 until May 13 (Mother’s Day).
In a post about the awards on her website, Monsef points out that the gala is taking place in October because it’s National Women’s History Month.
Those looking to nominate a woman were asked to provide a written description, in 300 words, of the reason for nomination.
The categories for the awards were the following:
• Entrepreneurship
• Environmental stewardship
• Community leadership
• Community service
• Work toward combatting poverty
• Work toward ending discrimination
• Work toward gender equality
• Work toward Indigenous reconciliation
• Work toward rural community sustainability