Five Weyburn women were honoured on Tuesday for their work on behalf of the community at the annual Women of the Year awards ceremony in McKenna Hall. The ceremony is sponsored by Quota International of Weyburn and SaskPower, with two other local businesses also sponsoring their own awards.

The women, chosen from among 15 nominees, are: Donnita Maas, winner of the SaskPower Workplace Excellence Award; Miranda Spencer, winner of the Investor's Group Young Women of Distinction Award; Gail Bartlett and Monique Huebner, winner of the Access Communications Exceptional Entrepreneur Award; and Josie Klein, winner of Quota International of Weyburn Community Service Award.

Bartlett's husband Ron accepted the award on behalf of his wife and her business partner, Monique Huebner, who were unable to attend the ceremony.

The sold-out luncheon is one of the Quota Club's most successful events of the year, said president Val Wing. Over 250 tickets were sold, with the proceeds going to Quota projects which support disadvantaged women and children in the community.

The Weyburn Public Library's toy lending library, the Weyburn Care-a-Van project, Weyburn Rotary Music Festival awards, and the Violence Intervention Program are just some of the many programs which receive funding from Quota.

The winners were presented with crystal vases inscribed with the name of the award they received. They all said they appreciate the work the members of the Quota Club do to organize the award ceremony.

One of the winners, Donnita Maas, winner of the SaskPower Workplace Excellence Award was described by master of ceremonies and past president of Quota Kathy Coroluick as a driving force behind fund-raising for the Family Place, where she works. After the ceremony, Maas said she is very proud to have won.

"I was quite surprised. I didn't expect it when there are a lot of hard-working, deserving women in the community. It would be great to have everyone win an award and be recognized." She said she could not do her job as manager of Family Place without the co-workers she has, so the award has to be shared with them. Maas was nominated by co-worker Linda Rudachyk.

Josie Klein, winner of the Quota International of Weyburn Community Service Award, is the co-custodian of the Wheatland Senior Centre, co-owner of J&R Yard and Garden, and cooks for McKenna catering. She has fostered over 100 children, served on the board of the Foster Parents' Association, and is a director and hospitality chair of this weekend's annual Farm, Home and Leisure Show.

Klein said she never dreamed she would be named winner. "I feel there would be others more deserving. It's just wonderful that Quota would do this for me. But without my friends who nominated me and without my husband helping me, it wouldn't have happened."

Klein was nominated by Yvette Bauche and Ruby Schmidt.

The winner of the Investor's Group Young Woman of Distinction Award said she didn't expect anything like this to happen when she began to volunteer for the Violence Intervention Program six years ago.

"It's very nice to be thought of but I just do what I can to help. There are lots of people who deserve some recognition," said Miranda Spencer, who also has a young family and is employed at La Mirage.

Spencer was nominated by Kate Dammann.

The two women who shared the Access Communications Exceptional Entrepreneur Award shared the vision of a children's clothing store for Weyburn and felt a business partnership would allow them flexibility in their family life.

Less than a year after preparing a business plan, Gail Bartlett and Monique Huebner opened Snup and Mo's Kids Clothing on Third St. They celebrated their third anniversary in business in March and were out of town at a buyer's convention on Tuesday.

They were nominated by Gennie Girardin.

The luncheon speaker was Regina mystery writer Gail Bowen, who told the audience women can help their families and each other through times of pain and defeat by telling caring and nurturing stories about themselves and their predecessors. "They give the wonderful gift of knowing you're not alone," she said.

Bowen alternately provoked and inspired her listeners with some of the family stories she had been told as a child that helped to shape her life.

One of the underlying currents in all her grandmother's stories, she said, was that women have to be independent because they can't always count on good fortune lasting forever.

"Then, my mother had her own world view," she laughed, explaining that most of her mother's stories were about children who swerved from the path of goodness and ended up sold into white slavery or some other condition as serious.

On a day when the accomplishments of women are being celebrated, we need to pay attention to women's stories, she said.