By Camille Taylor

Last night, the YWCA of McLean County honored women with the Women of Distinction Award and the WINGS Award. The Women of Distinction Award is given to women who are nominated in seven categories: Business, Creative Arts, Education, Professions, Social Services, Volunteer, and the newest category, Young Professionals. The WINGS Award grants up to $1,500 for a Woman to Improve her skills for a Notable purpose which allows her to Grow professionally and achieve Success.

Thanks to the YWCA, this premier event has been honoring women for the past 27 years. As you listened to the contributions these women have made to our community, you felt both awe and a deep sense of gratitude. The nominees, as well as the selected winners, have demonstrated qualities of leadership and excellence in their professional and personal lives. The seven categories of the Women of Distinction Award impact everyone in our county. As you read the short bios in the program booklet you began to get a sense of how much one person can accomplish and how much one person can make a difference.

Over the last 27 years, women like Joanne Maitland, Julie Dobski, Carol Reitan, Sonya Reece, and Barb Adkins,to name a few, have received the award for making their mark on our community. If you remember the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, the main character, George Bailey, was given the opportunity to see what life would have been like in his town if he had never been born. As George was escorted by Clarence, the angel, through his hometown of Bedford Falls, he witnessed crime, shacks, where nice little homes had stood, and a town that was consumed with gambling and wide scale pandemonium. George realized that his life had made a difference and without his sphere of influence, the town was struggling economically, spiritually, and in general how people treated each other.

There is a saying,“To whom much is given, much is expected.” The Women of Distinction and WINGS awardees epitomize this thought, as they have taken their God-given gifts and have paid it forward. If you were at the event, I hope you were amazed and appreciative that these women call McLean County home.

Camille Taylor, a retired Counselor from Normal Community High School, has been an educator in this community for 34 years. She is active in the community currently serving as a church elder and board member for both the Baby Fold and the YWCA. She has been recognized by the YWCA as a Woman of Distinction for education, a Martin Luther King Jr. award winner for the City of Bloomington, a Distinguished Alumni by the College of Education at Illinois State University, a Human and Civil Rights award winner for the Illinois Education Association, and the H.Councill Trenholm Award recipient from the National Education Association for her work with diversity. She lives in Bloomington with her husband, Arthur, and is a mother and grandmother.

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