Over 40 women were honored for their contributions in their respective fields during Blank Slate Media’s second annual Women of Distinction of Nassau County awards event.
Keynote speaker Renee Flagler, award-winning writer and executive director of Girls Inc. of Long Island, whose mission is to empower girls to be strong, smart and bold, reflected on what the honor meant to her.
“I realized there was something fundamental about myself when I was younger, that I was a fighter,” Flagler said during the event Thursday night at Leonard’s Palazzo of Great Neck. “I needed those skills because later in life I had to fight to not be overlooked as a woman.”
Flagler, the founding board chair for Literacy Empowerment Action Project Global, which provides programming and scholarships to students in Ghana, Africa, went on to say to be distinct is to be recognized for your differences, good or bad.
“It also means that you are unique, each of you an amazing and unduplicated masterpiece,” Flagler said. “Rare individuals existing as a sole example of oneself. The very things that make us uniquely distinct are the characteristics that make us uniquely ourselves.”
Flagler implored the audience and her fellow honorees to keep providing the leadership needed today through each of their unique qualities.
“The world needs leadership, it needs our ideas, our resilience, and also our softness,” Flagler said. “It needs us, so whatever you are doing, women of distinction, we need you to keep showing up.”
Blank Slate Media Editor and Publisher Steven Blank said the night’s honorees represented a diverse, talented and committed group of individuals at the forefront of embracing new ways of thinking in order to grow their businesses and serve their clients.
“You all have a vision and a mission and have surpassed many goals that you most likely set for yourself,” Blank said. “What unites us all tonight is how our organizations are contributing to the economic growth and well-being of Nassau County.”