There are 5 nominees for the YWCA MDI Women of the Year, 3 nominees for the YWCA MDI Young Woman of the Year and 5 nominees for the YWCA Girl of the Year. All of them are terrific nominees. Now's your chance to vote. Voting is open August 23 - September 6th.


You can vote HERE Winners will be announced on September 10th.

The nominees are:

Woman of the Year

Bo Greene – for helping to organize the MDI Climate March and for her daily Indivisible MDI updates and calls to action for social justice.

Dee Karnofsky – for tirelessly working for 7 years to establish the Parish House residence in Bar Harbor,  which provides permanent supporting housing for adults with disabilities. note - Dee has withdrawn her name from consideration on August 23

Wendy Haynes Littlefield – for donating a kidney to a child in need, for hosting AFS exchange students for many years, for serving on the Mount Desert Town Council, and for consistently going above and beyond her work at MDIHS by helping and encouraging students.

Nina St. Germain – for her work on civil discourse, for organizing a series of discussions about civility with the Bar Harbor Town Council, and for her work on the Love Letters of MDI project.

Jessica Stewart – for her tireless activism speaking out and organizing protests throughout New England against the racist policies detaining asylum seekers and separating families. note - Jessica has withdrawn her name from consideration on August 23

 

Young Woman of the Year

Jessica DeFrenn – for her work as an accomplished artist, for mentoring young art students, for offering free art classes to the Swan’s Island community, and for volunteering for her church.

Catie Forthofer – for her work as an accomplished musician and performer, for directing and co-directing show choirs and musicals for schools, Acadia Community Theater, and SFOA, for helping to coordinate the Rally to Unite Against Hate following the Charlottesville attack, and for her activism with Indivisible MDI.

Maggie Painter – for her work with a women’s rights group in India, for her 2 years of serving as a volunteer Summit Steward for Acadia National Park, and for her activism with Indivisible MDI.

 

Girl of the Year

Irene Choi – for organizing the public Civil Discourse Workshop in May 2019, for helping to organize the Women’s March in January 2019, for her work as a summer intern with A Climate to Thrive, and for helping to organize the MDIHS student protest following the Parkland school shooting in 2018.

Sirohi Kumar – for her work as a summer intern with A Climate to Thrive, and for helping to organize the Women’s March in January 2019.

Maaike Korstanje – for her activism with the Conners Emerson Civil Rights group, for mentoring 2nd and 3rd grade students, and for her volunteer work at Serendipity used clothing store.

Gianna Turk – for her activism with the MDIHS Civil Rights Team, and for testifying at the Maine Legislature against forced conversion therapy.

As a group, the Single-Use Plastic Ban team of Ella Izenour, Caroline Musson, Charlotte Partin, and Logan Wilbur – for teaming up with students at Pemetic Elementary School to bring awareness to the problem of single-use plastic bags and food containers on MDI, which brought about bans on the bags and containers in all four towns on MDI.

 

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