WIC WILD Awards Join MKP WOW Awards by Mary Walilko

Louise Lovdahl and Kathy Volpe greeting guests

The WILD/WOW Awards dinner on April 29 honored both the men of MKP Chicago as well as the women of Women in Circle, the local Chicago/Wisconsin WW community. The WOW (Way of the Warrior) Awards have been presented annually for the past several years.  This is the first year that the WIC community joined the MKP Chicago community for a  joint dinner and award presentation.

Three women from Women in Circle were awarded the first annual WILD (Women in Leadership and Development) Awards for their many years of outstanding service to the local Woman Within community. 

The dinner was held at the Athena, a popular Greek restaurant in downtown Chicago.  The reserved banquet room was filled to capacity with MKP men and WIC women and their guests.

There was a feeling of joy present in the room as the attendees connected, greeted, and hugged: some were old friends, others meeting for the first time.  I was personally delighted to see women I had not seen for years and meet other women I had known only by name on the various Chicago and Midwest list serves. This feeling seemed to be shared by other women at the dinner.

MKP Chicago Elder, John Cecilia, and WWI President, Ro Getto giving blessing

Head of MKP Chicago Elder Board, John Cecilia, and Woman Within International President, Ro Getto, each gave a blessing before the dinner started.  Entertainment before and during dinner was provided by the very talented singer and guitarist, J. J. Porterfield, and raffle tickets were sold for cash prizes. A bountiful buffet of delicious Greek foods was available for this hungry crowd with many going back to the buffet table for second and third helpings.

When we had our fill, the buffet and tables were cleared and the awards presentation began. Master of Ceremonies, Andrew Fash, and Mistress of Ceremonies, Leslie Recht, took center stage and did an excellent job of presenting the awards and keeping us entertained.

The men's awards included The Seven Generations Award, given to Jeff Robins for his work in the pharmaceutical health care field in Central Illinois, educating women and their physicians about more health care options. Scott Francis accepted the award in behalf of Jeff who was away staffing a men's Warrior weekend in Arizona. Jeff has staffed over 70 Warrior, Path to Spirit and other weekends since his own Warrior weekend in 1990.

Two men, Steve Jaffe and George Rounds, shared the Servant Leader award for providing leadership by modeling self-sacrifice to the mission, men who "show up and get the job done," exhibiting leadership by their devotion to the cause.  A Warrior since 1987, Steve Jaffe said he has served the community "that feeds my soul" as he accepted his award.  George Rounds, who has worked with the  Boys to Men Weekends for many years, expressed gratitude to his wife who encouraged him to go through the Warrior Weekend in 1989 following her own WW Weekend.

M.C. Andrew Fash with Scott, accepting the WOW Seven Generations Award for Jeff Robins

Steve Jaffe and George Rounds, winners of the WOW Servant Leader Awards

The Spirit Warrior Award went to Kenny Ruiz, who exemplified the true spirit of the warrior by acts of courage and generosity, commitment and devotion to the mission of service to others.  Kenny Ruiz works with young people who are involved with gangs in the Chicago area, offering an alternative by providing mentorship and guidance. 

Harry Steckman, a Warrior since 1995, received the Ron Herring Mission of Service Award for his work in The Steckman Studio of Music, which teaches the disciplines of music to aeveryone regardless of ability to pay.  The Steckman Studio targets 6 to 12th grade students who do poorly in school.  The Steckman Studio has taught Jazz education and Jazz performance to over 5,000 students since 1981.

Kenny Ruiz giving his acceptance speech for the Spirit Warrior Award

Harry Steckman, winner of the WOW Mission of Service Award, beaming for the (other) camera

Whereas the MKP Elder Board voted for the winners of the men's awards, the women received both the nominations and awards by votes from the WIC Community.  Louise Lovdahl received the Community Builder Award for her tireless work since her own WW Weekend in 1993 in many areas, including coordinating three MKP/WW national conferences, helping to build bridges between the MKP and WIC Communities, participation in the Multi-cultural Committee and her continual education of WIC women with her online posts and article contributions to this newsletter.  Louise works to bridge the Chicago and Wisconsin women and continually raises our awareness of diversity issues.  Louise Lovdahl works a high school counselor in Kenosha, WI. mentoring minority students.

The Mentor Award was won by Esther Robertson for the wonderful healing energy she brings to the woman's community as well as her inspiring mentoring of Facilitators in Training.  Esther has opened her home numerous times to Open Circles, workshops, ecircle trainings, a Woman's Thanksgiving, practicums and much more.  Women feel welcomed and embraced by Esther's kindness and warm energy.  Esther was responsible for Calling a Circle which eventually became Women in Circle, our local community.  Accepting the award for Esther was Tracey Jane Hall. Esther was in London, England, teaching at a WW2 weekend, a training weekend she helped to create. Esther became a WW Weekend Leader in May, 2007.

WIC Community Builder Award winner Louise Lovdahl giving her acceptance speech.

M.C. Leslie Recht with Tracey Jane Hall who accepted the WIC Mentor Award for Esther Robertson

Marilyn Jaffe won the WILD Community Leader Award. With this award Marilyn was acknowledged for more than 10 years of service. No-one has worked harder or longer to create a community of women in the Chicago and Wisconsin area.  Some of Marilyn's accomplishments include: creating and editing the first quarterly Midwest newsletter called the Rosevine, opening her home so often to Open Circles, workshops and meetings, that her home is now called the unofficial Women in Circle headquarters as well as Camp Jaffe.  Marilyn has been a member of the leadership council of the WIC Community since it's beginning and is past President of WIC.  Marilyn staffs many WW weekends, is part of the Midwest Staffing Committee and is an active member of the local Multi-cultural committee. Marilyn has been a role model for all the women in our community over the past 10 years. Accepting her award, Marilyn said she went to her WW weekend with the intention of "fixing" her husband and son, instead, her work turned out to be her dance with relationships. WIC became her community, and she said her work in the WW community was "the most rewarding work I have every done."

The MKP Chicago men's community presented Marilyn with their own Special WOW Award for all of her work in bringing MKP and WIC together. Among her recognized accomplishments: Marilyn co-chaired and M.C.'d the 2002 joint MKP and WW national conference, and then again in 2003 and she has been involved with the Multi-cultural Committee which includes both MKP and WW.  Marilyn accepted her second award of the day stating, "Warriors are the best huggers."  Marilyn said her relationships with Warriors men and Women Within women are deeper and richer than any other.  This was the first annual WOW Special Award given to a woman.

WIC Community Leader Award winner Marilyn Jaffe giving her acceptance speech.

Rob Johnson presenting the WOW Special Award to Marilyn Jaffe

The Award ceremony ended with a closing blessing from John Cecilia and Ro Getto. I left the award dinner feeling grateful for this opportunity to enjoy the company of MKP men and WIC women and finally see deserving WIC women receive recognition for giving their time and talents to build and lead the WIC community.

Much gratitude and many thanks to Rob Johnson (MKP Weekend Leader) and Leslie Recht (WIC MKP Liason) for their work on bringing the men and women together for this first joint award ceremony as well as Sonja Ortman (WIC Events Coordinator) for her work in coordinating the voting for the nominations for the women's awards and the voting for the winners of each award as well as keeping the WIC community informed of the voting results, awards and the event.