This is one of our highlighted mornings each year as it is our Awards Celebration. This is the time we recognize and award three different recognitions; our GIVE Award, Ruby Award, and Live Your Dream Award.
The GIVE Award (formally Violet Richardson Award) honors young women in grades 8-12 for volunteer action such as fighting drugs, crime and violence, cleaning up the environment and working to end discrimination and poverty. GIVE is our own acronym for Girls Into Volunteer Experiences. The award is named after Violet Richardson, the president of the first Soroptimist club in Alameda County in 1921. Richardson believed in personal responsibility and the motto, “It’s what you do that counts.” She lived her life accordingly, as an active member in her community who was committed to creating opportunities for girls and young women. Soroptimist established this award to honor the memory of this unique woman and her dedication to volunteer action. Each recipient received $250 personally and $250 for her organization. Our three amazing recipients were Sydney Birkholm, Sofia Marroquin, and Alana Hernandez!
The Ruby Award honors non-Soroptimist women who are making extraordinary efforts on behalf of other women. This award gives the club and the entire organization the opportunity to say “thank you” and encourage others to explore ways to assist women. The Soroptimist Ruby Award recipient should be a woman who:
- Has worked to improve the lives of women and girls;
- Has had a significant impact on the lives of women and girls;
- Inspires and encourages other women.
This year’s recipient was given $400 personally and $400 to her organization. This year’s Ruby Award was presented to our friend, Kathi Jensen, and was so well deserved. Thank you Kathi for all you have done and continue to do!
Every year, Soroptimist distributes more than $2.8 million in education awards to about 1,700 women all over the world through the Live Your Dream Award. Over half of our Live Your Dream Awards recipients are survivors of domestic violence, trafficking or sexual assault. Nearly all of the women and families we serve have overcome enormous obstacles including poverty, teen pregnancy, and drug or alcohol addiction. Live Your Dream Awards recipients may use the cash award to offset any costs associated with their efforts to attain higher education, such as books, childcare, tuition and transportation. This year these two recipients split a $4500 scholarship. We were so honored to present awards to both Amanda Sposito-Schmidt and Kaitlin Green.
What an amazing morning it was and it’s all possible because of the generosity of our community. Our annual fundraising efforts make these monetary recognitions a reality for our winners, so THANK YOU to all who donate, bid, and support our efforts. TOGETHER we have made a difference in the lives of these amazing individuals. 
You can read details of each of our recipients at https://conta.cc/3YSnXe3