Celebrating Women in Oxford County

Wednesday, 8 March 2017 15:15

Shelley Green was the winner of the AppreSHEation Award today at the International Women's Day Event in Woodstock.

WOODSTOCK - It was a packed house at the International Women's Day event inside the Oxford Auditorium.

Ladies and a few men came to show their support for women in Oxford County. They also handed out the Appresheiation Award and this year it went to Shelley Green. Green is the Executive Director of the Alzheimer Society of Oxford and is also the founder of Mothers with a Heart for Ethiopia. She tells Heart FM it was a honour to win the award in front of her friends and family.

"Having my daughter here, my mom and dad and my friends and my brother along with the staff from the Alzheimer's society, really I wanted them here to share in this award because this award wouldn't be possible without the opportunities that I have had in my life and the people that I have had the great privilege of working with everyday. Volunteers and staff have been a great blessing, to see their commitment, their devotion, their compassion is really very motivating and my mom has been one of my greatest role models."

Green was nominated by the staff at the Alzheimer's society in Oxford in part for the work she does in the community. She was also nominated for the work she has done with Mothers with a Heart for Ethiopia. Green explains how that organization got started in Oxford County.

"It started after I came back with my daughter, I adopted my daughter from Ethiopia 6 1/2 years ago and when we were there, my mom and I started to serve children that were living on the streets by providing them food, clothing, tarps and shoes. When I came back I knew that was just the beginning of my volunteer work and about a 1 year later we formed the organization called Mothers with a Heart for Ethiopia. We currently support about 7 projects in Ethiopia and we have raised more than $250,000 and because it is all volunteers all of the money goes to Ethiopia and makes an unbelievable difference in women's and children's lives, it's just incredible."

Also at the event Unifor donated $2,000 to DASO and another $2,000 to Ingamo homes through their social justice fund.