Honoring the Best in Business

Last Friday I attended the 11th Annual Women in Business Legislative Update and Awards Luncheon--not my normal milieu, as I work in the arts. But if you've been following Pasadena Daily Photo you may remember I attended a Business Boot Camp at the Women's City Club of Pasadena. An artist has to be a business person after all.

Business Boot Camp was created by CPA and Financial Planner Donna Chaney, pictured at left. At Boot Camp, women participated in bi-weekly workshops led by a variety of business leaders from bankers to entrepreneurs to marketers, and even ourselves when we had skills to share. We got so much out of it a few of us decided to nominate Donna for this year's Empowerment Award, and she got it!

Donna's unique idea, and her dedication to making the experience available, empowered many local women to start a new business, enhance an existing business or bring more viable practices to our work. Donna deserves her award and many of her Boot Campers were there to cheer when she received it.

With Donna is Tamika Farr, Executive Director of the YWCA Pasadena-Foothill Valley, who was honored as an Outstanding Non-Profit Executive Director. Under Ms. Farr's direction, the YWCA has expanded and increased by 20% the number of community members it serves, increased community partnerships by 50% and procured new program funding resources. I haven't actually met Tamika. She and Donna were talking, I took the photo then she disappeared. I think she likes me.

The luncheon was presented by State Senate District 21, State Assembly District 43 and State Assembly District 44 and hosted by Senator Carol Liu and Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, both of whom welcomed the huge crowd with brief speeches. I think they knew the main attraction was the awards.

25 outstanding businesswomen were honored, and it was inspiring to cheer them on and witness their triumph. One woman can do many things--build a business, build a family and/or build a skyscraper--and when a woman achieves the heights in her field it makes us all look good.

Embracing Our Diversity

Folks said 7:30 was a little early--not to be out of bed, necessarily--but to be showered, dressed and out in public being civil on a Monday. But none of us would have missed it for anything.

It was the Pasadena YWCA's Women for Racial Justice Breakfast, chaired by Ellen Portantino, emceed by NBC's Beverly White and put together (obviously) by a lot of unsung but dedicated people. I was one of the lucky women invited to share a table with my friend and Pasadena's Public Information Officer, Ann Erdman. Did you know the YWCA's whole mission is "Eliminating Racism and Empowering Women"? And the YWCA in Pasadena is huge.

I knew I'd enjoy it. I even knew I'd be inspired. But I didn't know how much.

This year's recipient of the YWCA Racial Justice Award was Marge Wyatt, a Pasadena activist for more than 50 years. Sandra Davis Houston gave Wyatt a rousing introduction, saying there's no way we can know how many lives she influenced over the years. Wyatt has fought for equality in many ways: by writing about it, by standing up for desegregation, as the founder and former board president of Child Care Information Service and as an active presence on the PTA. When asked what his mother did, one of her sons once said, "She goes to meetings." She has spent the better part of 50 years going to meetings to make Pasadena a better place for people of every heritage.

Dr. Joy DeGruy, yesterday's keynote speaker, holds more degrees than a hot day in Pasadena. Her speech was funny and poignant. Most interesting to me, she challenged my assumptions and those of everyone else in the room, from the responses I heard. She spoke for about half an hour but I could have listened to her all day. If she writes like she talks then her book, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Enduring Legacy of Injury and Healing, promises to be a hell of a read.

All thousand or so of us took a Racial Justice Pledge together yesterday morning. You can take it, too.

I believe that every person has worth as an individual.
I believe that every person is entitled to dignity and respect.
I believe that every thought and every act of prejudice of all kinds is harmful; if it is my thought or act, then it is harmful to me as well as to others.
Therefore, from this day forward I will strive daily to eliminate prejudice from my thoughts and actions.
I will discourage prejudice by others at every opportunity.
I will treat all people with dignity and respect; and will strive daily to honor this pledge, knowing that the world will be a better place because of my effort.

Other posts about the event: An Inch At A Time, Hometown Pasadena
If you see other posts about it, let me know and I'll link to them here.

If you think about this pledge, it's not an easy thing to do. But let's all take a good shot at it, shall we? And when we mess up, let's keep trying. That's what Marge Wyatt did, and she's succeeded in making the world a better place.