Congratulations to our 2015 W3 Award Winners…
The Inspiring Young Woman Award
This award goes to a young woman who demonstrates positive leadership skills in her studies, extracurricular activities, and volunteer work. All in all, she’s an inspiring young lady!
Congratulations, Isabelle Amyot!
The Graceful Aging Award
This award is presented to an older, yet vivacious woman who exemplifies healthy living in mind, body and spirit. She is constantlybeing asked what her secret is!
Congratulations, Ghislaine Tessier: Ghislaine is a woman who has never given up when the going gets tough. In a span of over 5 years, Ghislaine had open heart surgery, had her gallbladder removed and battled breast cancer. She is now cancer free and has a renewed determination to continue living a healthy life. Even though life has dealt her many challenges, she has persevered through it all, lost over 35 lbs and regained her health. She is always good humoured and loves to make people laugh.
Today, she continues to inspire everyone around her by volunteering her time at various hospitals as an information host, the gift shop consultant and visiting elderly people in a home. She even walks a man to a coffee shop, buys his coffee and brings him back to the home. Ghislaine is an amazing woman, she has selfishly given her time and love to over 120 children of the Children’s aid society and continues even at the age of 75 to volunteer her time to help others. Ghislaine is often being recognized at the hospital for her hard work but what satisfies her the most is to give back to her community as she feels an act of kindness is worth a thousand words.
The Thirst for Wellness Award
This award goes to an individual who is constantly finding ways to improve her overall health and wellness. She attends lectures, finds resources online, and stays up-to-date on all health and wellness trend.
Congratulations, Megan Delany: Megan is a C.O.R.E. Level I and Level II indoor cycling instructor, who is thrilled to be able to escape the shackles of her office desk chair to motivate others in their quest for lifelong fitness (while giving back to charity!). She is also a CanFitPro Personal Trainer, Cancer Exercise Specialist, HeartWise Specialist, as well as other specilized training qualifications.
She is passionate about music, cycling, fitness and community development. Megan aims to connect with her clients uniquely ensuring nobody gets left behind, regardless of goals or experience. Her motto is simple “Don’t go for normal, go for happy. Go for what you want life to be instead of settling for what is”. Megan claims to have “Sports A.D.H.D”, having a diverse sporting background in competitive soccer, basketball, rowing and triathlon. Lately her quests have been more rugged in nature, taking up mountain biking, trail running, cross-country skiing and adventure racing. Megan works professionally with a host of local not for profits aimed at ending homelessness in our nations capital.
The Health Activist Award
This award is presented to a woman committed to making our community a healthier place. She regularly shares her knowledge through lectures, workshops, and other resources.
Congratulations, Michelle Vodrazka: Michelle Vodrazka is a licensed sports nutritionist and a certified personal trainer, yoga, Pilates and fitness instructor. She is also the owner and head coach of Inspired Bodies, an online fitness and nutrition coaching company and MomMeFit, a pre- and post-natal fitness resource. Michelle is a national level figure competitor in the CBBF, and has a background in gymnastics, diving, running, obstacle course racing and various team sports. Michelle’s passion for inspiring people to get healthy and fit is apparent in everything she does and with more than 20 years experience in the fitness and nutrition industry she has the knowledge and the proven track record to assist people in achieving their goals. Michelle specializes in fat loss consulting, pre- and post natal programming, body transformations, and fitness competition preparation. Michelle also practices what she preaches in her personal life with four children of her own, on top of a full time desk job, so she knows how difficult it can be to balance it all, but she believes that making time for health and fitness will allow a person to lead a longer, happier and more satisfying life. Michelle’s personal experience with dairy and gluten intolerances and a daughter and husband with celiac disease make her well qualified to help others with their own food allergies and intolerances.
The Sports Mom Award
This award goes to the mom that really does ‘do it all!’ She continually supports her children’s health and fitness efforts; traveling with sport’s team, driving her children to practices, and helping
with fundraising events. Go Mom!
Congratulations, Julie Benson: Julie is an amazing nurse, her compassion for humanity is felt by her patients as she continues to seek better health for them. Last year, Julie embarked on her own search for healthy living by successfully losing over 50 lbs. She continues to inspire her family and friends by making healthy meals for them and searches for new recipes and ways to incorporate more exercises in her daily routine. She is up in the early morning hours to complete her exercise routine and has made herself accountable by checking in with a friend to discuss her progress. Julie ensures to wake up early enough to exercise and then proceeds to get her family ready to take on their day. A real super mom! Her weekends consists of driving her kids to different soccer fields in the summer and various arenas in the winter, which are often in different parts of the city as she supports and encourages both her children. Julie loves to encourage her children to aspire to a sport they both love and can progress, she also supports their healthy lifestyle by ensuring their lunches are filled with nutritional goodness. As she succeeds to plan her weekends with renewed determination and organizational skills, Julie never lets her family or friends down and never ceases to amaze them. She supports her children with their school and sports fundraising event and is often volunteering to help where it is needed. Just the other day her son asked her to wait until he returned from hockey because he wanted to do her core exercise routine with her. As much as Julie encourages and inspires those around her, its beautiful to see how her compassion and being there for those she loves is being passed on to her children.
The Perseverance Award
This award goes to the individual who despite all the odds, has persevered. Regardless of any curve ball that life has thrown her, she continues to remain positive. This is for the lady that never, ever, gave up!
Congratualtions, Barbara Munshaw. “I‘ve been in business for over 8 years and about a year and a half ago my mother passed away from cancer, two weeks later my brother got stomach cancer and had to go through a major surgery and is still recovering from that, my adopted brother and best friend got cancer and passed away 6 months after my Mom. During all of this I decided that I’m not waiting any more to start the second division of my company called Virtual Assist Girl. So while I was having two surgeries myself for total hip replacement, I figured I’m stuck at home for a while, what better time to make Mom and my brother proud, but go full steam ahead with this. Then my other brother had a heart attack and more recently my brother-in-law had a major accident that had him in the hospital for 2 months. It seems like a lot to most, but I have the most amazing people around me. I get my strength from not wanting to have any regrets, my time is now. My time is when I make it my time and because I know the people that passed before me would have kicked my butt for not trying, not living fully and not forging ahead with life when they would have given anything to live longer. I wake up every day wanting to live the life I was meant to.”