Celebrating 30 years of recognition for outstandin

Nominations are invited for an awards program that recognises outstanding women, as the region celebrates the 30th anniversary of the first Cairns Woman of the Year award.

In this milestone year of the awards, Cairns Regional Council is hoping to bring together as many previous Woman of the Year recipients as possible at the annual International Women’s Day Breakfast.

“We’d love to have past winners of the award attend the breakfast to celebrate everything that has been achieved in the past 30 years.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have contact details for some of the past winners. There is a handful of winners for whom we don’t have records.

“If you are, or happen to know, someone who was a Cairns Woman of the Year from these missing years, we encourage you to contact Council so we can fill in the blanks and give all the past recipients the recognition they deserve.”

The 2019 Cairns Region Woman of the Year, Young Woman of the Year and the $2000 International Women’s Day Scholarship will be presented at the International Women’s Day breakfast on Friday 8 March.

More Powerful Together is the theme for this year’s event, which recognises women and girls in the Cairns community who have made an outstanding contribution to the lives of their peers.

“It’s a great opportunity to highlight the accomplishments of women, but I also think this particular theme is made for Cairns,” Cr Cooper said.

“The support that women provide for each other in our region, from a networking, business and mentoring basis, is extraordinary and I think that it very much does make us more powerful together.

“With regards to the awards, it’s not only important that we acknowledge the achievements of local women but that we continue to identify and encourage positive role models.

“International Women’s Day allows us to recognise the importance of women in our lives, and to society overall, and to motivate them for greater future achievements.”

Mayoress Claire Manning will give a special toast at the breakfast and former councillor Deirdre Ford will relay an inspirational story about how the awards began in Cairns 30 years ago.

Hosted by Cr Cooper and Councillor Cathy Zeiger, the event will be held at the Pullman Reef Hotel Casino from 7am and include a hot-plated breakfast, prizes, motivational speakers and great entertainment by The Ironing Maidens.

Tickets for the breakfast event are now available through Ticketlink at www.ticketlink.com.au.

Council thanks Bendigo Bank for its continued sponsorship of the awards.

Nominations for the awards and scholarship are now open and close on Wednesday 27 February. Forms can be downloaded from Council’s website.

Missing years

Council is seeking to get in touch with Woman of the Year award recipients for the following years: