NOTN- Tonight at Centennial Hall, Juneau will honor community leaders and raise funds for AWARE at the Women of Distinction gala.
AWARE, serves survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault and has been doing so since the 1970s.
AWARE relies on community support to keep shelters, transitional and permanent housing, and advocacy services running.
“AWARE does many things, number one is that there’s a lot of education about what domestic violence and sexual assault and all forms of violence are, what a healthy relationship looks like.” Said Christina Love, Women of Distinction Honoree, “I would say, the heart of AWARE really is the advocates, people who are trained to listen to these stories, to sit with you and give you that experience of somebody who really understands what you’ve gone through and will support you in whatever decision you are choosing to make.”
Organizers say this year’s Women of Distinction Gala theme, “The Butterfly Effect,” highlights how small acts create big change.
“I think one of my favorite things about Women of Distinction is listening to stories, because someone always talks about this event that happened, when they were 7 or when they were 23, and it changed the way they looked at their relationship with the world.” Love said, “And so what we thought about for this year’s theme, is just to imagine that all of these women who are so strong and capable and smart were at one point little girls who had these events happen to them and then also made things happen for themselves. It’s just so powerful to hear when they reflect back on their lives, what are the things that motivated them? That’s my favorite part of Women of Distinction.”
This year’s honorees, who according to AWARE are celebrated women of distinction in the Juneau community, whose work (paid and/or volunteer) has benefited the lives of women and children in Juneau; are Maria Gladziszewski, Seikoonie Fran Houston, Christina Love, and Dr. Alice Taff.
“The Women of Distinction, what we do is for the people.” Said Houston, “We have the heart and we have the energy, and what we do is for the good of the people around us.”