ESTEVAN — Women for Women, the committee behind the Southeast Women of Distinction Awards event, presented a donation to the Black Gold Guiding District, Estevan's Girl Guides to support youth programming in the region.
The presentation occurred during a recent Night Market for the Downtown Business Association.
The Women of Distinction Aawards were a resounding success in May of 2023, the committee said, and the organizers chose to make a $500 donation to support Girl Guides and their projects for the next year.
"When we started the event, there was always an intention to make some community donations," said Tania Andrist, awards and nomination chair with the Women for Women group.
"The idea was to focus on girls' or women's projects that would be in alignment with the focus of the entire event, which is to celebrate women in southeast Saskatchewan. So, there was a healthy debate at the table. And then the group came up with the idea of Girl Guides.
"It really resonated with everyone, because the Girlguiding hit on so many themes and it's inclusive. It's for young women, it's something that we all had a positive memory about if someone was a part of that when they were younger, and it's a group that you don't always see getting a lot of donations."
Girl Guides were having a fundraiser at the night market, so the Women of Distinction committee stopped by to support their efforts with their boost. Andrist noted that this donation was also their way to "show [their] appreciation and gratefulness to the community for supporting the event so wonderfully in May."
Additional profits from the Women of Distinction Awards will be used to create a new scholarship for the southeast region, to be awarded to graduating high school students next year. Scholarship details will be announced in the spring.
The committee has already started looking at next year's SE Women of Distinction plans.
"We have big plans for next year to move the event to a bigger venue," Andrist said. "And all committee members were interested in returning for a second year of this event, so that was really positive for us internally and externally for the community as well … We just were so pleased with the way the event turned out, and community support, as well as the support of all the people who nominated other individuals for these awards.
"We look forward to doing it all again in 2024."
