Tickets on sale for Southern Indiana Woman of the Year event

> SOUTHERN INDIANA — A couple of months ago, the News and Tribune put out the call it was looking for a few good women. More than that, actually, it was a search to find truly remarkable women.

Miracle workers, we called them, in the spirit of Helen Keller who once said “When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”

We put the word out to readers, pastors, community organizers and leaders: Take a moment to consider the women in your life who inspire and revolutionize the way we live … who is kind, selfless and loves her friends, family and community whole-heartedly … with a contagious spirit. Someone, we asked, who inspires not only greatness in others, but goodness as well.

Several of you answered our call and nominations came from all corners of Clark and Floyd counties. Five finalists — nominated, by friends, family, neighbors and co-workers for their contributions in the community, workplace, church or school — were ultimately from the pool of nominees selected by a panel of seven local women.

It was not an easy task. Even more difficult than choosing five great women from a large group of distinguished and deserving ladies, however, will be choosing just one as the 2012 Southern Indiana Woman of the Year.

The 2012 finalists are:

Mary Engleman, of New Albany

Nominated by her friend and fellow Trinity United Methodist Church Education Committee member Melissa Stinnett-Stroud, Mary’s list of contributions to her community reflects a lifetime of service to not only local children, but children all over the world.

At Trinity UMC, she heads the education committee, directs Vacation Bible School and teaches Sunday School. She is a fundraiser for the Clothe-A-Teen program, does weekly collections for Blessings in a Backpack that helps feed local children and is a donator for the church’s mission of sending children’s books to libraries in Sierra Leone. Mary also tutors local children, helped create a homework help session at Slate Run Elementary School and collects items for gift baskets that are distributed to new moms who might not be able to afford baby items on their own.

“… there may be a few things we inadvertently overlooked due to her constant dedication to helping others and making everyone feel as if they are the most important person in the world,” Stinnett-Stroud said in her nomination letter.

“I truly believe women like her are driven by a love for others and work not for recognition, but because it is simply the right thing to do.”

Pat Harrison, of Floyds Knobs

She works, she shops, she cleans, she weeds … She organizes and beautifies. Pat — the owner of and a broker at RE/MAX One in New Albany — does it all, co-worker Gloria Green said in her nomination letter. And she provided a list of Pat’s contributions to the community to back up her claim.

Though she is widely known for her professional success as a real estate broker and businesswoman, there’s a lot more to Pat than her involvement with local home builders groups and Realtors associations. Her passion for the environment led her to celebrate the first-ever Earth Day in New Albany in 1970 by organizing the planting of 1,500 trees in area parks. Since then, she has donated 1,200 more trees to be planted in Community Park and has given countless hours to helping keep the community clean and beautiful — through organizing a grassroots “Adopt A Corner” program and other citywide cleanup efforts.

A huge advocate of the arts, Pat is also a front-runner in fundraising for the Arts Council of Southern Indiana — giving hours of volunteer time to organize events and bring in contributions — even personally donating $100,000 to the organization in an effort to purchase the group’s building on East Market Street.

Then there’s her membership to countless service groups, her volunteer work with scores of local and regional charities and years of mentoring and tutoring for adult literacy and New Albany-Floyd County Schools’ GED programs, as well as serving as a volunteer teacher at local schools and enlisting the help of fellow Realtors in providing back to school shopping sprees for local children.

Everything she does, Green said, is a testament of her dedication to building a better community for future generations.

“She has dedicated her life to giving back to the community,” Green wrote. “… She has passionately supported those organizations that uplift our environment, community’s children and community’s cultural well-being.”

Mary Kagin Kramer, of Jeffersonville

To say she has made her way in a man’s world would not do justice to the path Mary Kagin Kramer has taken in life.

A well known community volunteer, Mary has long immersed herself in groups historically reserved for participation from the opposite sex and has taken them by storm … Becoming the first-ever female to gain membership to the Jeffersonville Rotary Club in 1987 and then the first woman chosen to serve on the club’s board of directors just two years later, she also was the first female member of Rotary District 6580. And her ties to the Boy Scouts of America (both her brother and her husband are Eagle Scouts) have led her to decades of advocating for Scouting and its values, as well as the distinction of becoming a registered Scouter herself.

Her love of both groups has led her to bring the two together, and she has played a significant role in establishing a strong bond and partnership between the Jeffersonville Rotary Club and the Lincoln Heritage Council of the Boy Scouts and Chief Old Ox District of the Boy Scouts. She has earned numerous positions, appointments, distinctions and honors for both groups over the years.

One of her nominators, though, knows Mary for her dedication to a completely different cause: The American Red Cross.

The executive director for the organization’s Clark County chapter, Phyllis Wilkins, highlighted Mary’s contributions to the group in her nomination letter, saying Mary’s commitment to the Red Cross dates back to 1970 when she worked with the organization’s Louisville Chapter. Locally, Wilkins said Mary has served for 11 years on the Clark County chapter’s board of directors, three times being elected as board chair. When tornadoes hit northern parts of Clark County on March 2, it was Mary who took on the responsibility of organizing and mobilizing the chapter’s board of directors and subsequently donated countless hours of time to disaster relief efforts — as she also did following disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and massive flooding events.

“Mary’s selfless and unassuming manner of providing necessary leadership in times of crisis, as well as her hands-on approach to providing much needed muscle during times of crisis are the embodiment of the qualities most sought after in women of distinction,” Wilkins wrote.

Mary Ann Sodrel, of New Albany

Thirty-two years after graduating from New Albany High School, bouncing around the world as a Navy man’s wife and raising two children, Mary Ann returned to her native New Albany, enrolled in college and earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and fine arts from Indiana University Southeast. And then she went to work as the financial director at the Interfaith Community Council. It’s been full steam ahead for Mary Ann since.

A short time after going to work for the Interfaith Community Council, she signed on to be director of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program — a position she held simultaneously with her work at the ICC for about two years. Stayed on at ICC until 1994 and then moved on to volunteer pursuits that would allow her to focus her attention on ways to help the less fortunate.

One of her first endeavors was helping to found Trash Force, an environmental group focused on promoting recycling issues. Her work with the group was instrumental in encouraging the city of New Albany to adopt a curbside recycling program. She also served two terms as president of the New Albany Business and Professional Women, helping to increase the club’s membership by 25 percent, and serving as the chair for the group’s CHOICES program, which is aimed at instilling self-esteem in fifth- and sixth-grade girls. She also is a longtime volunteer for LifeSpan Resources where she is a charter member of the Senior Citizen Advocacy Committee.

As a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in New Albany, Mary Ann is a longtime choir member and lay reader, and is in charge of the Clothes Closet — which provides clothing to the needy. She serves her diocese as a member of the Capitol Campaign Committee for Waycross, the church retreat center, and the longtime chair for the Episcopal Fund for Human Need.

Elizabeth White, of New Albany

Elizabeth has lived in New Albany her entire life. You don’t know her, you say? Well, chances are you know someone who does — someone who has quietly, but greatly, benefited from her giving spirit, said her husband, David, in his nomination letter.

“Beth has served and given to this community and others, liked the Bible says, ‘slightly and without notice like a thief in the night.’”

As a physical therapist, Elizabeth has worked with disabled children in the New Albany-Floyd Consolidated School Corp. for more than 20 years. It is a calling she first answered as a 16-year-old when she began volunteer work at Sliver Crest Children’s Development Center. Since then, she has been a volunteer with the Special Olympics and has worked to raise money to purchase wheelchairs, braces and transportation vans with lifts for families who can’t afford them. Not only does she strive to provide families with material needs, she also lends emotional support and friendship by baby-sitting for her students so their parents can have “date nights” and quality time together, David said.

Elizabeth is a 30-year member of Northside Christian Church where she has twice served on the building committee, taught Sunday school for more than 20 years, helped design and build an interactive indoor playground called Ashley’s Bibleland in honor of her late daughter and also co-founded WINGS (Women in God’s Service). She is a 36-year volunteer for Harvest Homecoming and a former board member and fundraiser for St. Elizabeth’s in New Albany.

“… You can ask anybody about Beth, she makes this world, this community and life better for all she comes in contact with,” David said.

EVENT AND TICKETS

The finalists will be honored Sept. 28 during the Southern Indiana Woman of the Year dinner event at Kye’s II in Jeffersonville, organized by the News and Tribune with sponsorship from Elder Advisers and Kye’s. At this event, one of the finalists will also be named the 2012 Woman of the Year.

This year the Southern Indiana Woman of the Year event will benefit Jacob’s Well and its House of Hope.

Tickets are $50 and are on sale. Other opportunities to support the event — through table sponsorships and donations of items for a gift basket to be presented to the 2012 Woman of the Year at the event — are also still being accepted. To purchase tickets or for more information on how you can be part of the event, call or email Christina Vincent at 812-206-2108 or christna.vincent@newsndtribune.com or Amy Huffman-Branham at 812-206-2127 or amy.huffman-branham@newsandtribune.com

Clark County

Search Results

Discussion

Tickets on sale for Southern Indiana Woman of the Year event

News and Tribune to again recognize standout women

Site Map

Contact Us