The YWCA's Tribute to Young Women's Leadership Awards ceremony Thursday at the Radisson Hotel and Conference Center honored more than 40 nominees, whose accomplishments are impressive.
Alas, space limitations require an abbreviated version of the winners' resumes.
Sakira Hadley participates in Alpha Kappa Alpha's Read-Aloud program and a dramatic-reading group for young children. She also started a book club for 12- and 13-year-old girls.
Carrie Bramlet, Krista Church, Amanda Herzig, Lauren Oldja, Marisa Perry, Elise Sheppard and Amanda Van Vleet, all members of Girl Scout Troop 68, refurbished a domestic violence center, including equipping it with recreational equipment.
Lauren Oldja received additional recognition for her mentor program at the Center for Advanced Technologies at Lakewood High School. She supervised nine mentors who taught Lego Robotics to 30 minority middle school students.
Kennetra Keyonna Louise Irby is organizing a multiracial crime prevention rally.
Louisa Powell is president of the NAACP Youth Council in St. Petersburg.
Teresa Van Alstine earned the Girl Scout Gold Award. The St. Petersburg High School and Randolph Macon College graduate organized a weeklong community education event that focused on sexual violence against women.
Brittany L. Oliphant performs in her church's Solid Rock ministry and worked in a New York homeless shelter and soup kitchen.
Taguna Reid, a 19-year-old mother of three who passed the GED test to receive a high school diploma and earned a pharmacy technician certificate, works in a supermarket and has been hired by a hospital.
Sara Murphy entered the Pinellas Marine Institute for juvenile offenders, where she is showing maturity, responsibility and leadership.
Jessica Tomlinson, who is legally blind, is an intern with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and a student at St. Petersburg College, working toward a career in sound.
Marie Moncrieff, who uses a wheelchair after having survived an accident, is a 911 operator and volunteers as a computer lab assistant and teacher's aide at Abilities.
Other nominees were Mojeh Kya Adams, Sharonda Helen Boyce, Tara Brandenburger, Julie Suzanne Cannon, Rachel Annise Cato, Nicole Marie Collins, Ashlee Cooper, Kayla Lynne Currithers, Takita Cuthbertson, Hayley Jade Fink, Kathryn Fraciose, Michelle John, Heather Green Magness, Jonita Rachelle Marshall, Safiya Miller, Nakita Moody, Vanessa Pineda, Kyesha Vernaj Robinson, Mirela Sektic, Rose Harvey Stovall, Tyrhonda Candice Taylor, Amanda Weingarten, Mallory O'Neill Woddall, Megan Lynette Woodall, Jennifer Michele Woodson, Bethany Joy Wyns and Rachel Francine Young.
Keynote speakers were St. Petersburg Times executive vice president Marty Petty, Pinellas-Pasco Circuit Judge Nelly Khouzam, lawyer Yate Cutliff, Pinellas County Commissioner Karen Seel and YWCA chief executive officer Peggy Sanchez Mills. YWCA board president Pamela Skyrme gave the welcome.
Also attending the reception and presentation were Pinellas County School Board member Linda Lerner, St. Petersburg City Council member Rene Flowers, Roslyn Graham-Haynes, Jim Mills, Anita Treiser, Tami Simms-Powell, Alizza Punzalan, Bernie Young, Jim Gillespie, Carlen Peterson, Marilyn Johnson, Dr. George and Jane Stovall, Carly Mertz, Carolyn Turner, Mary Stephens, Manita Moultrie and Jacqueline Gayle-Kelly.
Betty Breedon is the new president of the St. Petersburg branch of the All Children's Hospital Guild. Other officers are Carol Russell, president-elect; Barbara Sexton, vice president; Betty Sowers, recording secretary; Dorothy Rusch, corresponding secretary; and Mary Byrd, treasurer.
The seventh annual Social Calendar will publish Sept. 7 and will list events through June 2004. Please send details of your event, including sponsoring group, time, date, venue (including street address), ticket price and contact phone number.
- Mary Jane Park can be reached at 727 893-8267; by fax at (727) 893-8675; by e-mail at park@sptimes.com or by mail at P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731.
