Celebrating Women's Influence!

 

Tonight the Annual Susan B. Anthony/ Women of Influence Awards will be presented. There will be a glittering Gala dinner and we will celebrate some special women who have used their considerable influence to do good in Kenosha County!  I have photographed this event since 2016. It is always held in March, which is Women's History Month and sometimes, as today, it also coincides with my mother's birthday. If she was still with us, she would have been 102 today!

Susan B. Anthony was a Quaker and a leader of the American Suffragist movement in it's early days.  She helped to pave the way for the nineteenth amendment, passed in 1920, which gave women the right to vote. By all accounts, she was a woman ahead of her time, promoting suffrage and women's property rights as early as the 1850s. The awards celebrate her legacy and show that there are still strong women leaders in today's world.

There was no event in 2021. In 2020, SBA/WOI (as it is familiarly known) was one of the last events in a normal world before COVID-19 shut everything down. The event tonight is a welcome return to life and celebration! The four women we will celebrate are:

Terri Wruck, Lifetime Achievement Award.  Terri has "dedicated her life to encouraging and inspiring women and youth through pathways to education, internships and job opportunities." according to the official statement.

Jennie Tunkieicz (pictured above in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment) is Kenosha County's Chief of Staff; she is being honored in the Government/Business/Nonprofit category.

Sabrina Morgan, Promise/STEM coordinator at Gateway Technical College, is the winner in the Arts/Education category.

And Carli McNeil, Kenosha County's Deputy District Attorney is the "Woman to Watch" (under 40).

As well as these honors, scholarships and grants will be given out.

The fact that we have a "Women's History Month" shows how little women's contributions to His-story are recognized! Here's to those determined women who led the way and the strong women who continue to influence our community in positive ways!