Nominate Your Campbell Woman of the Year

Women's History Month is just around the corner, and the city of Campbell, along with the Santa Clara County Office of Women’s Policy, have opened the nomination process for the second “Campbell Women of Distinction Awards.”

There are 50 cities within the county of Santa Clara. Some have citizen-of-the-year or business-of-the-year awards; Sunnyvale has its Athena Awards. Campbell is the only one that honors women and girls this way, says Buu Thai, county Office of Women’s Policy grant coordinator.

Thai and former Campbell Mayor Evan Low came up with the recognition over a conversation about Women's History Month last year.

"He and I are friends, and we were just talking about it last year, saying, 'Wow, we need to recognize more women and girls,'" Buu says.

Last year’s theme was writing women back into history, and the program recognized 10 women and girls from Campbell.

"We had a great amount of feedback and a number of nominations," Low says. "I learned about a number of organizations that people in Campbell were involved in. I'm looking forward to make sure that this is an annual thing. I hope to see many applications."

In order to be nominated, women have to be at least 16 years of age and be a student, professional woman or community coordinator who lives or works within Campbell. Women and girls will be evaluated on criteria, such as the impact of their major achievements and experience.

 "We wanted to include girls, because they have done so much in terms of high schools," Buu says. "They have done a lot within their school environments and through community service."

Low also says that highlighting young women was an essential part to this program.

"I wanted to highlight young, up-and-coming women," he says. "We wanted to empower young women while also recognize the contributions of women in American and the struggles they still face."

The award program’s purpose is to recognize women of all ages who have made special contributions in the Campbell community. Nominations are due Feb. 28.

For more information, call Thai at 408-299-5135 or email buu.thai@ceo.sccgov.org.

Recipients will be recognized at the March 21 Campbell City Council meeting.