Two honored by women's group

Each year those gathered vote for a recipient of their donation, and the 2016 campaign was to go to either the Cancer Center Therapeutic Chemo Comfort Chairs or to the Women's and Children's Cancer Center Good Samaritan Fund.

Last year, the group bought rocking chairs for the neonatal therapy unit at the hospital.

After a welcome by emcee Lisa Chamberlin Stump, invocation by Sarah Denman and music by Janice Chandler Gold, the group enjoyed a preventive health Q&A session with the women's health panelists, Cari Burck, an osteopathic physician at the Cabell Huntington Hospital's Women's and Family Medical Center, and Gigi Gerlach, an oncology nurse at Cabell Huntington Hospital and the Edwards Comprehensive Cancer Center.

After the two answered questions pinpointed to women's health, the group turned its attention to honoring a couple of special ladies in the audience.

Stump awarded the newly named Christie Kinsey Focus Award to Tamela White of the law firm Ferrell, White and Legg.

One of the founding attorneys of the firm, she was the first female trial lawyer from West Virginia to be elected to the International Association of Defense Counsel and is currently serving as chair of the Medical Defense Committee of that organization.

A former critical care and oncology nurse and hospital administrator before her legal career, White was honored for her work with the West Virginia's Women for Education Forum, which has raised money to better lives in southern West Virginia through education.

Stump called White "a person who looks for solutions" through such actions as the WE Foundation whose motto is "about planting seeds and making a difference one life at a time."

In brief comments White, a foundation board member, simply said the honor is for her mother Dixie, "who came every year to this."

Former Lifetime Achievement award winner Margaret Wilson presented this year's Kitty Hage Lifetime Achievement Award to groundbreaking local childhood education leader, Norma Gray.

Wilson called Gray "a role model, a mentor and visionary who was ahead of her time," and who knew what a quality education could do for children.

Gray spent 25 years as the executive director of the River Valley Child Development Services where she ran four early childhood education centers, eight centers for school-aged children, a food pantry for eight counties, and many other programs including a statewide apprenticeship program for those going into early childhood education.

"You know I did this all by myself," Gray said with a laugh. "No, I had a lot of help, so I am speechless and quite honored."

Gray, who retired in 2002, said she comes to the event each year to be inspired by the next generation of women in many fields coming together and forging a better path of wellness and making good in the community.

"The main reason I come each year is to see all of you who are working so hard to help others," Gray said. "It thrills me to see how we all work together."