SEQUIM — Women and girls in southernmost Mexico as well as on the North Olympic Peninsula received honors — plus a financial hand — last week from Soroptimist International of Sequim.
In an early morning Tuesday meeting, the Soroptimists presented four people with Women’s Opportunity awards.
A $1,000 award went to Britni Gordon, who supports her family while attending The Hair School in Port Angeles.
Gordon cares for her mother, who is disabled, as well as for her 12-year-old sister. The $1,000 was given to help Gordon with school tuition.
Sequim 17-year-old students Fallon Schneider and Allison “Alli” Cutting were given awards from the Soroptimists for their efforts to make a difference in their home town.
Schneider, who is this year’s Irrigation Festival queen, received a $500 cash award, while the Girl Scouts of America, with whom she has spent many hours volunteering, received $250.
Cutting was presented with a $250 award for her work at the Sequim Boys & Girls Club, where she organized a running club and worked as a volunteer.
She is now working on a research project on childhood obesity, and has conducted interviews with Boys & Girls Club members on that issue.
The Soroptimists’ Ruby Award for Women Helping Women went to a Sequim-based organization that raises money for scholarships, computers and empowerment workshops for young women in Chiapas, Mexico.
Judith Pasco, a retired Spanish teacher, and a group of other local women established the Mujeres de Maiz Opportunity Foundation back in 2006, and have since provided scholarships as well as eyeglasses, computers and solar lights for indigenous Mexican women, according to the foundation’s Web site, www.MujeresdeMaizOF.org.
Pasco, dressed in a vibrant blouse from Chiapas, accepted the Ruby Award on behalf of the women there.
She emphasized that her board of directors — which includes Molly Rivard of Port Angeles, Carol Bell of Federal Way and Martha Rudersdorf, Pat Lang and Linda Finch of Sequim — have helped her build Mujeres de Maiz into a nationally known nonprofit featured in the Alternative Gifts International catalog (www.AltGifts.org).
The Ruby Award includes no cash, but the Sequim Soroptimists have been donating money to Mujeres since its beginning four years ago, Pasco said.
“One of the first talks I gave was to the Soroptimists,” and the group promptly contributed $250, she said, adding that she was moved by the women’s faith in the organization, which had just begun its work.