There was something very special going on in Chestermere on January 17th, 2014. It was a day where in two different locations, women were learning how to strength each other and themselves and young girls were learning how to accept themselves and build strong relationships.
On this beautiful Saturday, the ‘Shared Wisdom – A conference for women by women’ and ‘Go Girl’ took place. The women’s conference was the first of its kind in Chestermere, while this was the 8th time that the Go Girl event had been held here.
Go Girl is an award winning one day program of fun filled activities for girl’s ages 9-16. Go Girl provides an introduction to a variety of popular recreational and sport activities in a supportive environment. It’s a chance to spend a day with the girls. Participants had the opportunity to participate in a number of different activities during the day that may now lead to a new interest or passion, while developing healthy lifestyle choices. This amazing day is coordinated and run by the Chestermere Regional Community Association in partnership with Mental Health Services and Synergy. There was also many volunteers that helped with the planning and administration. Go Girl was adopted as a province-wide program by Alberta’s InMotion Network who provide grants to various communities throughout Alberta.
A short distance away at City Hall, the first womens conference to be held in Chestermere was taking place. With almost fifty women participating, city hall was buzzing with positive energy and excitement. The day kicked off with a welcome message by Mayor Patricia Matthews, who reminded the attendees of what wonderful and strong women this group was. Next up was a keynote address by Patricia Morgan “Wondrous Western Women: Celebrate the Resilient Feminine”.
Workshops were next on the list as the ladies were able to participate in things from Calligraphy class to tracing your family history – yoga to planning for retirement – creating vision boards to learning how to relieve stress.
Where these two events crossed paths was at the lunch, where the attendees of the Women’s conference ventured over to the rec centre and joined the young ladies of Go Girl. Guests of both events drew colored slips of paper as they entered the main hall and that was the table of which you were to sit – thus causing the two groups to be meshed together during lunch. The tables were asked to work together to answer the question, “What is authentic beauty?” Each table was to write their ideas on a sticky note and then all the sticky notes were placed on a large sheet of paper on the wall. Ideas such as “being kind”, “being true to myself” and “being silly” were just some of the comments that were generated from these round table discussions. As lunch wrapped up, the women returned to city hall to wrap up their afternoon workshops while the girls of Go Girl continued with their fun afternoon.
After a full day of learning, discussing and strengthening, the Women’s Conference came to a close with wine, chocolate and a sexy salsa performance from Mambo Productions.
Lisa Baker, Family and Community Support Services Coordinator with the City of Chestermere, spearheaded the organizing committee that was responsible for the creation of this first time conference.
“Shared Wisdom Women’s Conference has given women of all ages a deliberate space to gather and share their collective wisdom, experience, skills, and passions. New friendships and stronger bonds have been made. The more authentic connections a person has in the community, the safer and more engaged that individual feels within their community. This has a ripple effect on the families, friends, and neighbours of those women in attendance. Attendees came away feeling empowered and inspired and ready to take on new and existing challenges and tasks. Stronger individuals help develop stronger communities and the Shared Wisdom Women’s Conference is one way to achieve this goal.” Explained Baker.
Baker went on to say, “We have a long list of residents, businesses, and organizations who helped make this event a reality. It is truly through their hard work and generous donations that this event was such a large success In addition to our presenters, donors, and sponsors listed on the Thank You poster. I would like to personally thank all the wonderful women who volunteered their time, talents, and passion on this event. The volunteer presenters and committee members were keen on sharing their wisdom with others and the energy brought forth by these women was an amazing thing to experience. We hope to make this an annual event! We are happy to have met some wonderful women at this year’s event and we plan on meeting even more at future conferences. I would encourage anyone interested in getting involved with the planning of the 2016 Women’s Conference to call Lisa Baker at 403-207-8152.”
“If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more. If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.” – Oprah Winfrey
