Ten Waterloo women, girls honoured for their contributions to community

Ten Waterloo women and girls were honoured Wednesday as the winners of this year’s Leading Women/Leading Girls, Building Communities Recognition Program.

The event was held by Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife. It was previously run by the government but was cancelled in 2018.

However, Fife decided to continue running it herself.

“We’re just celebrating these amazing young women, and really supporting community at the end of the day as well,” she said. “We felt it was important to continue on.”

Marit Stiles, the leader of the Ontario NDP, was at the event and shared why she felt it was important.

“We’re always dealing with lots of big issues right now in our communities, a lot of struggles, so it’s important to stop every once in a while and recognize people really pushing for change,” said Stiles. “I can speak to how important it is to be mentored, to be told, even just to be asked to step into a role and step up. It’s a really significant thing, and we often don’t do that with women and girls.”

The youngest of the honourees were Sophie McConnell and Edl Lemlen. They were celebrated for providing support and friendship to one of their grade six classmates who is non-verbal and on the autism spectrum.

“Their mothers told me about what the girls were doing, and I thought that was something we should be celebrating,” Fife said. “Because, inclusion matters, but we have to do more than just talk about it.”

Another award recipient was Paris Cai who developed a non-profit organization to support those in need with educational resources.

“I look at everyone else who won the award, all the other inspiring women, I’m so happy to be part of that group,” Cai said. “It’s just very special.”

The final recipient of the award was outgoing Kitchener Centre MPP Laura Mae-Lindo who is joining the University of Waterloo’s Department of Philosophy in July.

For the full list of recipients, you can click here.

Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife is hosting a Leading Women/Leading Girls, Building Communities event today. Opposition leader Marit Stiles is also in attendance for the event which celebrates female leaders in the community. @CityNewsKIT pic.twitter.com/Di3k5KKjgw

— Jonathan Strom (@jonathan_strom) May 24, 2023