Athena Award nominations sought

The Rotary Club of Jasper will host its sixth Athena International Award presentation on Thursday, August 17, 2017, beginning at 6:00 p.m. with Kelly Craig Schaefer as the keynote speaker.

Founded in 1982 by Martha Mayhood Mertz, Athena International is a non-profit organization that seeks to support, develop, and honor women leaders. The program inspires women to reach their full potential and strives to create balance in leadership worldwide.

Supporting, honoring and developing women leaders are the foundations of the Athena Leadership Model, developed through a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Athenians are identified by eight distinct attributes that are reflective of women’s contributions to leadership: authentic self, relationships, giving back, collaboration, courageous acts, learning, fierce advocacy, and celebration and joy. These personal traits combined with the strongest aspects of traditional leadership—taking risks, assertiveness, hard work—prepare women to be successful leaders in the 21st Century.

The Jasper Rotary Club decided that honoring a local professional woman would be a perfect fit with the Athena mission of “supporting, developing and honoring women leaders while inspiring women to achieve their full potential while creating balance in leadership worldwide.”

This will be the sixth presentation in Dubois County. Jane Chappell was the recipient in 2012; Brenda Stallings was the 2013 recipient; Kathy Tretter was the recipient in 2014; Nancy Eckerle was the 2015 recipient, and Connie Nass was the recipient in 2016.

Nominations for the local 2017 ATHENA Award® will be accepted until May 15, 2017. Nomination Forms may be downloaded at http://www.jasperrotary.com and finalists for the 2017 award will be announced by July 1, 2017. All finalists will be honored at the presentation dinner on August 17. The Jasper Rotary Club encourages all county business leaders to consider nominating an outstanding business woman for this award.

German American, Kimball Electronics, MasterBrand Cabinets, and Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center are the platinum sponsors of this event.