Grateful to the National Association of Women Business Owners
Saying THANK YOU isn’t enough. We’ve gotta talk about last night...
I am tremendously honored and humbled to have been awarded the Susan Hager Legacy Award by the Greater Raleigh Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners at the annual installation & awards gala.
As explained in the award description, this recognizes a chapter member’s “stalwart commitment to NAWBO evident in her efforts at both the local and national level… for her servant leadership and dedication to the pursuit of economic, social and political power for entrepreneurial women”. Most importantly, this award is named after NAWBO’s first national president and 1974 founding member, Susan Hager, who is famous for saying “𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝘀𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗿 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗹𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲.”
By being actively engaged with NAWBO-GR and NAWBO National, each of us is vigorously living out Susan Hager’s words of wisdom, rising together, as we build our own table, engaging with all elected officials in a bipartisan manner, embracing the diversity of our membership that makes us stronger, inviting everybody to engage in our mission, and making things happen together. Together, everyone achieves more!
Y’all, I cannot say thank you enough for my NAWBO-GR sisters, our NAWBros and all of the community supporters showing up to celebrate the successes amongst great challenges during the year ending as well as kicking off an exciting NAWBO-GR year ahead, especially the incredible Lana Calloway, NAWBO-GR’s 1999-2000 Chapter President, who presented this award to me.
I appreciate how my squad deeply loves the person I am, pushes me to level up when needed, provides a supportive sounding board and helps me laugh until I cry at times… and y’all have shown up repeatedly to help make me as well as our community better time and time again. NAWBO-GR provides the ideal organization through which we can obtain the support and resources needed to optimize opportunities as we come out of this challenging season. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!
Huge congratulations to each of the other chapter award winners, too:
👏🏻 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳 = Bank of America
👏🏻 𝘗𝘶𝘣𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘺 𝘈𝘥𝘷𝘰𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘈𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 = Terry Dunn
👏🏻 𝘙𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳 = Dani Choi
👏🏻 𝘔𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘋𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘵 𝘈𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘳 = Thomas Schaffer
👏🏻 𝘞𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘖𝘸𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘠𝘦𝘢𝘳 = Holly Van Apeldoorn
It is an honor to be amongst such rockstars. Each of you is an inspiration, and I’m grateful for you all!
𝗔𝘀 𝗸𝗲𝗽𝘁 𝗯𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝘄𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀, 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝘂𝗿𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗻𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘂𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻 𝗱𝗼 𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲. There is no National Association of Women Business Owners (or NAWBO) without its members, and there certainly was a buzz about what lies ahead amongst the 80+ folks in Prestonwood Country Club. It was truly a blessing to see all the wonderful individuals who mean so much to me as well as our entire organization all together in one room, but, if you weren’t there, you’ll want to keep your eyes peeled for details on August’s workshop and September’s luncheon because you don’t want FOMO again.
The upcoming year’s theme is 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗡𝗲𝘄, including new connections, certifications, collaboration opportunities as well as ways to take care of ourselves for even loftier success ahead, and I know we will each be positively impacted by living out this theme. I am beyond excited about what Carnela and her team are going to accomplish together!
Our efforts will be led by this 2023-24 leadership team as sworn in last night:
👑 President = Carnela Renee Hill
👑 President-Elect = Mary Michele Nidiffer
👑 Treasurer = Maribeth Christensen
👑 Secretary = Dani Choi
👑 Director of Corporate Partners = Jodi Hill Free
👑 Director of Public Policy = Terry Dunn
👑 Co-Director of Membership = Linda Jordan
👑 Co-Director of Membership = Thomas Schaffer
👑 Programs Chair = Melissa Claybrook
👑 Co-Chair of Professional Development = Carletha Ward
👑 Co-Chair of Professional Development = Katie Gailes
👑 Member at large = Cheryl Sutton
Rising together, we’ll accomplish amazing feats! Stay tuned to NAWBO-Raleigh.org for how you can engage as a member, by attending events, as an event sponsor or in a year-long corporate partnership. You'll want to be part of this!
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