The Women of Influence Nanaimo awards, which recognize community contributions by women, non-binary and two-spirit role models in the community, has its nomination window inching toward a close.
Last year's inaugural event attracted a sold-out crowd of 620 people to the Vancouver Island Conference Centre and garnered 100 nominees.
"Now we're gearing up for year two," said Blaise Hunter, the event's founder. "We're seeing nominations pour in and they close October 31 or until we hit 150 nominations, whichever comes first, and we're expecting another sell-out crowd of even more – 700 people."
There are 11 awards in total, including Business Impact, Creative Innovator, Breathe Fire (trail blazer), Arts and Culture, Health and Wellness, Fan the Flame (ally), Community and Social Responsibility, Trades, STEM, Matriarch (55-plus) and Youth Resiliency (16-30). All nominees, whether winners or not, will receive a certificate at the event, but only the 11 winners will receive awards.
"We have a big directive to not have finalists which poses its own interesting challenge to know how much space and capacity we have, but we think it's important to honour everyone because influence isn't linear," Hunter said.
Award recipients last year included Desirée Pahl, April Hilland, Kix Citton, Nadiya Albishchenko, Deborah Saucier, Esther Charlie, bailey macabre, Kerilie McDowall, K’reen Kerr, Talela Manson and Judy Stephan.
Community members have until the end of October to nominate a person, and can do so online at http://blaisehunter.com/nominations. The gala takes place on Feb. 5, with tickets available for $60.
Self-nominations are allowed, and Hunter said she's been excited to see more self-nominations this year – something she wanted to normalize.
"We're so critical of ourselves, we should start celebrating our triumphs and we're seeing that spike from the first year to year two," she said.
Hunter is the founder of the non-profit Footprints Infertility and Pregnancy Loss Support Society, for which she won an award in Alberta.
"When I moved to the Island, I realized there was still a lack of support on the front-lines for advocating for reproductive health, for supporting families going through pregnancy or infancy loss."
As a result, she decided to restart the society on Vancouver Island and create the awards locally. Proceeds from the event gala go to the non-profit, which gives free resource tools and mental health support bags for impacted families, and collaborates with workplaces, health organizations, and governing bodies to create better protocols around reproductive health rights and dealing with loss.
