YWCA Lancaster has announced the honorees for its 2023 Women of Achievement Awards.
“For seven years, YWCA Lancaster has proudly uplifted the inspirational work of local female-identifying community members,” the organization said in a statement.
This year’s awardees are as follows:
- Chelsea Christmas: Founder & owner, At Her Core Fitness; Community engagement coordinator, Assets Lancaster.
- Cindy Lam Guo: Co-owner, Silantra Asian Street Kitchen; Chair, Lancaster Asian American Pacific Islanders.
- Stephanie Thomas: Volunteer coordinator at the Speak to My Soul arts and events collective and A Concrete Rose bookstore. (She is the mother of Evita Colon, founder of the collective and co-founder of the bookstore.)
- Savanna Thorpe: Press secretary, Pennsylvania Senate Democratic Caucus
Additionally, Jayden Stokes will receive the Cheryl Gahring Young Person of Achievement Award.
Now a rising sophomore at George Washington University, Stokes is a 2022 graduate of Conestoga Valley High School. While there, she founded the PoWER (People Welcoming and Empowering Race) Club and the Women’s Liberation Alliance and led a successful petition drive to have Conestoga Valley institute an African American Studies course.
This year’s cohort is the youngest in the award’s history, YWCA Lancaster spokesman Aaron Spangler noted.
YWCA will host its annual Women of Achievement Awards banquet from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12, at the DoubleTree Resort, 2400 Willow Street Pike, Lancaster.
Tickets start at $75; for more information and to purchase, click here. Proceeds support YWCA Lancaster’s Kepler Hall residence program.
