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2007 Nominees
for the Myrtle Evertt
Woman of the Year Awards
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Owner of the new home-based business Shipwrecked Treasures
Born in Vancouver, Leslie learned at an early age the effect that jewellery has in her life. It was a neighbour that presented her with some beads and string and showed her how to string them.
Leslie was crowned in 1969 Miss Victoria Drive, Miss PNE and Miss Vancouver, and in the Miss Canada pageant she was first runner-up. She then began her studies to become a registered nurse and three years later she was working triage in VGH and eventually St. Paul’s Hospital. In between, she took some time out to go to the jungles of Guatemala to build a church and a medical center.
In 1996 she had heart failure, and because it was 3:00 am in the morning and she didn’t want to wake the neighbours, she walked to the hospital. By the time she arrived she no longer had a pulse or heart beat. The doctors told her she would never walk again or have the same mental capacity. Everyday she walked with her walker and within six months she could walk an entire block without aide. She donated her walker to the hospital. However, she was told she could no longer work and she turned to her beads.
Soon beads turned to silver and gold and then one of her instructors taught her how to facet stones and diamonds. She now runs her own home-based business Shipwrecked Treasures.
Leslie had a dream when she was young of either being a nurse or make jewellery. She did become a nurse and upon retirement she became a jeweller.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Member of the Valley Womens' Network
• Dog Walker for the S.P.C.A.
• Volunteer with the MSA Hospital and Surrey Memorial Hospital
• Fundraiser for the Breast Cancer Foundation
• Board member and vendor of the Abbotsford Farmer’s Market
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Watkins Independent Associate
At age eight Miki contracted polio. By the time she was fourteen she had survived a second bout of polio, which affected one of her legs to the degree that she was told that she could not pursue her dream of being a nurse. Miki went ahead despite her disability and graduated as an L.P.N. and a Registered Psychiatric Nurse in Manitoba in 1949. As a psychiatric nurse she worked in a federal penitentiary providing treatment for the most violent of sex offenders with confidence and calm. With a caring approach, she consistently pushed inmates to face reality and take responsibility for their crimes and lives.
At the age of 42 she fought and overcame breast cancer and after 33 years of nursing was forced to retire because of Post-Polio Syndrome. Having broken both legs due to a fall, she now walks with crutches but has never used her injuries as a crutch.
This did not stop Miki; she only changed directions. Miki entered Watkins in 1993 as an independent associate because she wanted to get wholesale prices for herself when ordering products, products that she remembers her parents purchasing when she was a little girl.
Fourteen years later, she is a Watkins “Manager;” she trains and facilitates new Watkins associates and at the Watkins International Awards banquet in 2003 in Vancouver, Miki was presented with the Bill Porter Award (and a trip to Ireland) by Watkins President Mark Jacobs in recognition of her success and the obstacles she overcame to achieve that success. She was the first and only person to date to have achieved this award.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Twenty years of serving as the Fraser Valley Post Polio and Support Society (PPASS contact person)
• Assisted in conducting five International Symposiums for PPASS
• Twelve years involvement with the Life Challenge Program through Abbotsford Community Service
• Ten years of coordinating social program for the inmates of Regional Psychiatric Centre
• Co-partnered the organization of a Charity Car Show for five years
• Assisted with the registration of Canada Summer Games, BC Senior Games, Rick Hansen Run and Abbotsford Food bank Run
• Volunteer security person for the BC Summer Games
• Certified Florist
• Recipient of the Watkins Bill Porter Award 2003
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Manager Out of School Care Program – Gladwin Childcare Centre
For the first 16 years of her professional life Cathy either owned her own business or worked in an office administration position. But it was the necessity of being a single mom and her love of children (her own and everyone else’s) that inspired her to move into the daycare/childcare profession. Over a span of 12 years Cathy took care of nine children from three different families going to their homes and ensuring that the children were provided nutritious meals, support for study skills; she administered medication, planned outings and provided positive redirection and guidance.
In 2004 a position with the Gladwin Daycare opened up and Cathy could not pass up the opportunity to apply. Her children attended the facility, which provided a sense of security not only for her and her children knowing that they could be in care at the same centre, but she also knew that she could put hundreds of other parent’s minds at ease knowing that their children were in good hands.
Today, Cathy supervises 11 staff and over 60 children as Manager of Out of School Care Program at the Gladwin Daycare.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Food bank volunteer at St. Joseph’s Church
• Coordinated three cloth swaps for the Gladwin Daycare
• Coordinated Christmas presents and food hampers for the families at Gladwin Daycare
• Volunteer at Gladwin Daycare family fun night
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Deputy Director in the Fraser Valley Regional Library System, Coquitlam Public Library
Rhian began as a teacher in Wales and then achieved a Master Of Librarianship. She has traveled widely - Guatemala, Japan, Europe, Thailand and the Middle East, including living and working for a time in the United Arab Emirates. Through these and other travels, she became acutely aware of how literacy or lack of it has a very strong influence on a country’s prosperity and its citizens’ lives.
After arriving in Mission in 1992 to undertake the position as Library Manager, she joined the Mission Literacy Association and served on its executive for 10 years. Rhian introduced Books for Babies into the community (now a provincial project) and she was also instrumental in establishing Books for Breakfast, a project in local elementary schools.
Upon joining the Rotary club of Mission she involved the two Rotary Clubs in promotion of literacy. Three years ago, she was named Rotary District 5050’s Literacy officer and has worked with Rotarians in Guatemala to establish a mobile (bus) library in that country. She has actively recruited young adults for Rotary’s Youth Leadership Awards, and has participated in presenting Rotary’s Four Way Test to children of Mission’s elementary schools.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Recipient of the 2003 Mission Community Service Award from the District of Mission
• Spearheaded the Provincial Books For BC Babies program
• Headed the publicity campaign or InterLINK OneCard
• Funded a Mobile Library in Guatemala through Rotary
• Rotary International Paul Harris Fellow
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Retired Teacher and Principal
“I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a teacher.” Joyce Kathleen Moran was born 79 years ago in the community Mount Lehman, the youngest of six children. Her father passed away when she was only one. They lived in a house where the walls were not finished and there was only paper lining the inside walls. She used to write on the papered walls in her bedroom and teach lessons to her make-belief students sitting on the floor.
She graduated from high school at the age of 17 and to pay for the registration fee to become a teacher, Joyce turned to work in Mt. Lehman berry field and later worked as a nanny to pay for her teacher training. She started her career at Peadonville School and after her mother’s death moved to Vancouver to continue to teach. Joyce met her husband Jim (married fifty eight years this June) and at one point he traveled in his work taking the family across Canada and down into the United States. Joyce gained experience working as a teacher in a one-room school in Prince Edward Island, to dealing with the racial tensions and impoverished environments in the 60’s in southern United States.
The Mahy family moved to Vancouver Island and Joyce continued teaching becoming an Elementary School Principal for the first time. She received her teaching degree from UVIC and in the early 1970’s the family moved to Vancouver. Joyce began teaching in Richmond and again became Principal. In 1978, Joyce graduated from UBC with a Masters degree in Early Childhood Education. In 1984 Jim retired and they purchased the house and property in which Joyce had been raised in Mt. Lehman. While her husband restored and renovated the home, she traveled to and fro to Richmond. After two school principalships, she was assigned to a dual program – English and French Immersion School. Joyce retired in 1993.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• BC Teachers’ Federation/BC College of Teachers - Teacher
• Chairperson of the Mt. Lehman Community Association, Mt. Lehman Heritage Society, Mt. Lehman Country Fair
• Board Member of the Mount Lehman United Church
• Mt. Lehman Church Choir - singer
• Teacher in the Richmond, Port Alberni, Castlegar, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford and Prince Edward Island School Districts
• Volunteer secretary to the Abbotsford-Mount Lehman B.C. Liberal Riding Association for 14 years
• Richmond Administrators Association – Supervisor/District Principal/Principal
• Mt. Lehman Credit Union Director for 10 years
• Member of the Mt. Lehman Public Library and the Canadian Association for Young Children
• Recipient o the Golden Jubilee Medal
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Owner of Stepping Stone Music Co. & Partner in Candlewood Designs
Liisa’s parents had a huge role in her choice to be a music educator and pursue volunteer activities to better the community. Her mother was her role model regarding community service, being extremely active in the community as Liisa was growing up. Her father supplied the musical influence. He is an accomplished musician in his own right and influenced Liisa in that director. After a firm footing in music in high school, Liisa went on to university to receive a degree in music.
Liisa has a home-based business Stepping Stone Music Company where she teaches voice, guitar, percussion and piano. She is also a partner in Candlewood Designs, a very successful home-based high-end furniture making company.
In 2001 Liisa started the community choir Joy Vox and in 2005 this group made a CD and the sale proceeds were given to the Food Bank. Her creative side comes out as a singer/songwriter, guitarist and keyboard player with her band Kitchen Sync.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Founder and Conductor of the Joy Vox Community Choir
• Vice President, Event organizer, Course Instructor for Mission Arts Council
• Event Coordinator for the Mission Hospice Society
• Organizer and musician of the Mission Coffee House
• Clearbrook Elementary School – P.A.C. Executive and volunteer Music Educator
• Juried Art Market Organizer for the Mission Folk Music Festival
• Event Organizer of the Twilight Concerts and the Canada Day event at Fraser Valley Heritage Park
• Talent Competition Judge, Voice Teacher for Musicians of CAMEO
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Executive Director, BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation
At age 14, Lindsay got her first horse, which she says, led to her interest in agriculture. During her youth and university education years Lindsay concentrated in the science and agriculture fields. Lindsay was a teacher of agriculture and related sciences at the Langley School Board for more than 20 years, taking her own interest and curiosity into the classroom as she worked with students to build a desire for growing agriculture products, agriculture sustainability, feeding the next generation and learning about business. Many of her students are now very successful agriculture or horticulture producers.
In 1997 Lindsay was seconded from her School District to the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation to be the project manager and today she is the Executive Director of the AITC Foundation.
Not only does agriculture impact her professional life her personal interest of course is gardening (landscape and food.)
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
• Creator of educational programs that connect teachers and students:
BC School Fruit and Vegetable Snack Program
Summer Institute or Educators
The Horse Listener
The Berry Best from the West
Spuds in Tubs – Potato Gardens for Elementary Schools
• Oversaw the development of some 60 teacher resources:
Grow BC – A Resource Guide to BC’s Agriculture
Beans and Their Buddies
Soil Secrets
The Sustainability Road Show
Butter Churns and Stern Wheelers
• The Dairy Classroom
• Developed the BC AITC (Agriculture in the Classroom)
• Board of Director of the Dairy Industry Historical Society
• Fraser Valley Regional Science Fair Committee Member
• Judge 4-H Public Speaking and Demonstrations
• Abbotsford Agrifair Horse Show and Horticulture Trade Show
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Please see the 2007 Ceremonies for winners and pictures of this wonderful event.
Requesting a Nomination Package
To nominate an outstanding woman in Mission or Abbotsford, please see about nomination information. We would be pleased to send you further information and/or a nomination package through regular or email.
All photos are copyright of the original artist at photoart by simpson,
a division of Clearbrook Photographic Arts Inc, and are used by permission.
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The Business & Professional Women's Club of Abbotsford
c/o 101 - 2001 McCallum Road, Abbotsford, BC, V2S 3N5
bpwabbotsford@gmail.com
Updated June 28 2010.
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