EDITORIAL: Woman of the Year award carries history

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October 25, 2009

By JIM GRAHN The News and Tribune Sun Oct 25, 2009, 12:42 AM EDT

From 1986 through 1995, The Evening News sponsored a Clark County Woman of the Year Award.

This was a good thing and is a tradition we will start again, in partnership with Kye’s, at 6 p.m. Friday at Kye’s II in Jeffersonville.

Many of you will remember the Clark County Women of the Year from the past and the contributions they made to our communities. They were Connie Daughtery (1986), Dr. Dorothy (Dot) Lewis (1987), Billie Sue Smith (1988), Margaret Read (1989), Betty Wolverton (1990), Theresa Wheatley (1991), Barbara Williams (1992), Fay Allen (1993), Phyllis Brown Wilkins (1994), and Sharon Kleehamer (1995)

Recently, our readers nominated women they knew who showed leadership, service, kind-heartedness, strength, wisdom and vision. A committee made up of JoAnn Galligan and Nina Fulda-Portman from The Evening News; Barbara Haas, clerk of the Circuit and Superior Courts in Clark County; Kye Hoehn of Kye’s; and Fay Allen, retired insurance executive and past winner, selected five finalists from all of the nominees and from those five, one will be chosen as the 2009 Clark County Woman of the Year.

The five finalists for 2009 Clark County Woman of the Year are: Jane Sarles, Joyce Dickson, Ruthie Jackson, Cathy Graninger and Marine Walls. Sarles, of Clarksville, is a retired librarian, founding president of Clarksville Historical Society and author of two books on Clarksville history. Dickson, of Henryville, is an adult 4-H leader, having worked with 4-H for 45 years. Jackson, of Charlestown, is the mayor’s assistant, director of North Clark Outreach Center and a Neighborhood Watch program coordinator. Graninger, of Borden, is the executive director of Communities in Schools of Clark County, retired teacher and principal, and church choir director. Walls, of Jeffersonville, is a regional parent coordinator for Twenty First Century Scholars Program and a foster mom.

Congratulations to these community leaders. We hope The Clark County Woman of the Year Award is an honor to the woman chosen and the other nominees and finalists, but we want this award to be more than honorary. We want to recognize the good work people are doing in our communities and, by recognizing it, encourage others, as the Apostle Paul said, “to love and good works.”

A lot of people do a lot of good all the time and usually do good things without being recognized. If our hearts are in the right place, the lack of recognition doesn’t matter. But when we have a chance to show appreciation and recognize good works and the good hearts behind them, we should do so.

We thank the readers of The Evening News for nominating women from Clark County for this award. We congratulate all the nominees, the five finalists and the one who will be announced as Clark County Woman of the Year on Friday night.

We invite everyone to join us. Doors open at 6 for cocktails and fellowship. Dinner will be served at 7. The award presentation will follow. The emcee for the evening will be Kerri Richardson, TV personality and Mayor Jerry Abramson’s communication coordinator.

Tickets are $50 and are available through Wednesday. Proceeds benefit The Center for Women and Families’ Adopt-a- Room program for their Southern Indiana campus. Call the newspaper at 812-283-6636 to get tickets or drop by The Evening News’ office at 221 Spring St., Jeffersonville.

We hope many of you will join us.

It’s not too early to be thinking about the 2010 Clark County Woman of the Year. Keep your eyes open for women you know who are committed to serving others and our communities.

And about this time next year, make sure you nominate them. But more than that make sure you emulate them and look for ways to help and serve others. Who knows, someone may nominate you.

— Jim Grahn is publisher of The Evening News. Reach him via e-mail at jim.grahn@newsandtribune.com

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