Jane Chappell awarded inaugural Athena

The first ever Jasper Rotary Club ATHENA International Award was bestowed on Jane Chappell last night at the Huntingburg Event Center in front of a crowd of over 200.

By all measures, the event was a success. The 12 finalists for the award were exceptional choices, the venue was perfect and the Key Note Speaker, Secretary of State Connie Lawson was good, too.

Lawson spoke about the importance of women leaders in a community and how they have a profound effect on the stability and solidarity of a community. She also said that there are vacancies for more women, especially at the state and national level in positions of public service.

Jane Chappell said that her time with Tri-Cap was special because of the type of work she was doing. “It didn’t always feel like work because many times we were able to do something that was very important to our community and was really things we needed to do,” she explained. “And, in many ways, every time Tri-Cap did anything I also grew personally, so basically I got a personal benefit as well as a professional benefit. And then was in a community that got another benefit.”

Chappel served as executive director of Tri-Cap for more than 30 years before retiring in 2007. She was instrumental in getting Tri-Cap turned around fiscally and establishing the organization as a strong community focused entity that does things the right way.

According to current Rotary President Tonya Heim the event was special because of the 12 finalists. “We have so many strong women in the community. These twelve finalists tonight are just a small sample,” she said. “They’re all incredible but there are a lot of other incredible women that I’m looking forward to recognizing in coming years.

The other 11 finalists nominated for the award included: Germaine Blessinger, Maureen Braun, Tonya Brothers-Bridge, Nancy Eckerle, Nancy Habig, Angie Pfaff, JoAnne Rodes, Angie Sander, Diane Schwenk, Vickie Tollett and Shannon Wood. All of the finalists were introduced and recognized at the beginning of the event.

This was the first annual Jasper Rotary Club ATHENA International Awards banquet, but judging from the response certainly not the last.

The ATHENA Leadership Award® is presented to a woman who is honored for professional excellence, community service and for actively assisting women in their attainment of professional excellence and leadership skills. This was the first award in Dubois County and was hosted by the Rotary Club of Jasper and sponsored by local businesses.