YWCA Women of Distinction Awards to honour worthy recipients

The Lethbridge YWCA will be dishing out some special hardware during their 2023 Women of Distinction Awards. Michelle Day, the executive director of the Nikka Yuko Japanese Garden, says she is honoured to receive one of the awards in the Community Leadership and Enhancement category, and says it allows her to look back on the people that have mentored her throughout the years.

“I hope that they feel that they’re being recognized through this, because I always say that Nikka Yuko, for example, the garden has to reflect the community that nurtures it. I feel that I hope that those who have worked with me, watched me grow, been there for me on my failures or my mistakes, but also watch me succeed, feel that I reflect them in a positive way, some shape, some form, somehow.”

Bridget Mearns, the executive director of BILD Lethbridge, is also an award recipient in the Leadership and Management category.

“It’s such an amazing honor to one be nominated. To be put forward for something like this and then to actually win it. It’s overwhelming. It’s incredibly humbling. I’m quite thrilled to be receiving this award. It feels amazing. And it’s one of those awards in our community that really speak to me. So to be a recipient of one is thrilling.”

Sandra Asuchak, the owner of Lethbridge Kinetic Indoor Cycle and Fitness is another one of the winners in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation category.

“The shock of having been, first of all, nominated, and secondly, to have been chosen for this award is still setting in. So I am still reeling from that. Really, really appreciative of my nominee. My nominator, actually. And yeah, I’m just I’m feeling pretty humbled right now. It’s really surreal. I just never in my wildest dreams thought that I would win something like this, so.”

The YWCA will be revealing more of the winners up until the official award ceremony which will take place on March 8th at the Coast Hotel.