We're All WINners

I just want you to know that in the near future, I will be blogging about some (more) delicious restaurants in NYC and Boston, a roller derby, and an a capella concert... BUT my regularly (un)scheduled blogging adventure has been momentarily put on hold for this important post!

On Thursday night, I joined several other fabulous progressive women as a Young Women of Achievement Award winner! The event was hosted by the Women's Information Network (I actually blogged about them last year when my friend Miriam P. won the same award) and was really fantastic. The kicker is that almost 40 people are nominated for the award, but similar to a full fledged awards show, nobody knows who wins the awards until names are called at the event itself. SO, when my name was called I had no real idea of what I was going to say as I walked to the mic.

Good thing I remembered to plug my blog (ha!) in my "acceptance speech" so I can fully analyze the award and graciously accept it here on the interweb. If I had actually prepared anything, I would have included the following:

Thanks, Froperson
It was Elissa F. who nominated me for the award (we got into an argument about who wrote a better nomination letter as I nominated her for an award too! And I still attest that mine was better because I was working with such excellent material). Unfortunately, Elissa couldn't be at the event to see me take home the gold...I mean glass plaque...in person. So, thanks to Elissa F. for writing what must have been a very excellent nomination letter (and for imitating Augustus Gloop's mother from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which causes me to laugh for extended periods of time) and for being a fantastic social justice advocate and activist too!

Competish
This year, WIN decided to divide up all the nominees into categories. My category was "Women in the Choice Movement." One of the other people nominated in this category was my friend and colleague, Edith S. (I have alluded to Edith before in posts about the Monif C. trunk show and my discovery of bacon enrobed in chocolate at Co Co Sala). Obviously, I love the idea of even being considered in the same category as the fabulous Edith S., who is the best ever Field Director at Choice USA. We took a series of photos pulling each other's hair to simulate bitter competition... But I've chosen to post this one which makes it look like we're really good at pretending to get along.

The G-steins...
So, I had been nominated for the Young Women of Achievement Award four times in the past. That's right, four times. It had actually become a really fun event to attend and cheer on the other accomplished people receiving the award. And every time, my parents and sisters got dressed up and came downtown to share a glass of (free) wine while schmoozing with the other guests. And every time, I didn't win. So, this time, my parents and one sister were on their way home from a vacation in London and the other sister was at home with the world famous Olivia. And I didn't even think to invite them because I was so sure my non-winning streak would continue. Alas, I was wrong. Thanks to my fam for being so enthusiastically supportive and always coming to my events even when I don't win (for four years in a row).

Inner Circle
As I walked to the stage to accept my award (it was a very dramatic moment, just like the Emmys), I loved seeing a whole row of my favorite people clapping for me! Thank you for bringing me flowers, videoing the acceptance speeches, reassuring my mom that we should share the video with her, going out after the event to celebrate with me, and being so generally fabulous. I could not ask for better, more supportive, or enthusiastic friends. You are the BEST.

Sara and Rebecca
Okay, crazy! There were four other winners of YWA Awards this year, and two happen to be my friends. AND, they happen to share the same names as my sisters. I just figured this out now as I began to write the section and love the coincidence. But, back to the point--two of the other winners are my mentors, friends, and colleagues: Sara F. and Rebecca F.! Sara (who also happens to be my part-time officemate) was nominated for the creation of her new progressive (and delicious) baking company, Grassroots Gourmet (ring a bell? I did a little photo shoot and blog post about GG back in December)... And Rebecca is the executive director of the National Coalition for LGBT Health and we participated in the Jewish Funds for Justice Selah Program (meaning we learned how to mesh and take vision stands and change the world) together. I think very highly of both Sara and Rebecca and was honored to share the stage with them. Nice work, kids!

We're All WINners
One other thing I DID remember to discuss in my acceptance speech was how great I think WIN is (but I will just reiterate this important point one more time). I've blogged about this awesome organization before and would really encourage you to join if you haven't already (thas is, if you're pro-choice, living in DC, a Democrat, and under 35... and if you're not, I'm impressed that you read this blog and apologize if I've offended you in the past). I am a big proponent of mentoring young women as they arrive in DC to pursue a career in the progressive non-profit community (sort of like future actors arriving in LA to be movie stars...but significantly less glamorous) and love that WIN provides such an excellent platform to do this. We've all been new once, so let's make it less scary for people who want to do good work on issues we care about.

...and to see what I actually said, check out this most excellent video shot by Alex M....