21st Annual ATHENA Awards Banquet

April 9, 2015 ~ Tonight I had the pleasure of taking photos at the 21st Annual ATHENA International Awards hosted by Women's Network in Columbia, MO! This is such an exciting evening as two women are recognized among their peers and awarded the honor of  2015 ATHENA Leadership and the 2015 ATHENA Young Professional.

These awards are beautiful!

For more information on the qualification for these awards please visit the ATHENA International website by clicking on this link: http://www.athenainternational.org/athena_leadership_award.aspx

I love working with these awesome ladies at our Columbia Chamber of Commerce / Women's Network! They do a wonderful job of keeping it's members informed and engaged in things going on!

 After trying to be serious and take photos of everyone in attendance
(over 150) making sure to capture beautiful smiles this happened....

These are my wild and crazy friends who didn't know I would be there.
I'm so proud of these girls as they were awarded the ATHENA Young Professional
awards just a couple years ago! 

See there's a great crowd for tonight's awards banquet!

Heather Stewart is the Women's Network President and will kick off tonight's event!

Mrs. Megan Judy (KOMU 8) was our MC for the evening!

Dr. Dianne Lynch, President of Stephens College was the keynote speaker for the evening!

They played a video that would announce this year's 2015 ATHENA Young Professional....

Our recipient figured out they were talking about her!

 Congratulations Billie Connally (Landmark Bank)!

Billie's husband and son surprised her by showing up to congratulate her!

Next they showed a video that will announce the 2015 ATHENA International award.....

 Our recipient figured out that they were talking about her!

 Congratulations Janice Schuerman (retired MFA)!

Some of Janice's family surprised her by showing up to congratulate her!

Congratulations Janice and Billie!
You are both very deserving of these awards and have done some amazing things for our community and other women. Keep doing great things!

A fun picture with some of the past ATHENA International recipients!

 A fun picture with some of the past ATHENA Young Professional recipients!

What a fun night recognizing these rock star women in our community!
See you next year!