It’s Awards Season

It’s been a nostalgic month for WILMA with lots of reflection and taking stock of what’s grown and what’s remained at the core.

For example, along memory lane, former WILMA co-editor Alison Satake popped by the office today. Now in California, she was in town on a family beach vacation but kind enough to deliver a batch of Britt’s doughnuts to WILMA’s downtown office.

It was shortly before Satake moved away in 2012 that she and her co-editor at the time, Nina Bays, hatched plans for WILMA’s annual Women to Watch Awards. (Nina, also now in California, still checks in regularly to write our style stories, including in this issue here.)

From that first year to now our fourteenth annual awards, hundreds of women in the region have been honored for the work they’re doing in their industries and in the community.

These days, we highlight thirty-five finalists each year in seven categories – expanding significantly from the initial year of six award winners and no finalists. The first year’s awards event was a close-knit lunch at City Club. On September 5, we take over the Wilmington Convention Center with 500 of our closest friends and family for this year’s award party. (You can read about the latest honorees – chosen by an outside panel of judges – in the special awards section here.

And the program continues to expand.

This year, we launch the WILMA Icon Award to recognize a visionary woman in the area with a lasting impact. First up is former Food Network and HGTV President Judy Girard, who retired in Wilmington and helped found Girls Leadership Academy of Wilmington (read more about her here).

While WILMA’s annual awards issue has evolved over the years, the intent has remained unchanged since Nina and Alison first started outlining ideas: recognizing the contributions of women from across fields in our area. And then throwing them a party!

Congrats to this year’s finalists and stay tuned for announcements in September of the winners.

Vicky Janowski

WILMA Editor

editor@wilmingtonbiz.com

Want more WILMA? Click here to sign up for our WILMA newsletters and announcements.