Adelaide Hunter Hoodless
Canadian Woman of the Year Award

Initiated in 2014-2015, this award recognizes a WI member for demonstrating excellence — from leadership to social change, from local to global reach, across multiple sectors.

Evelyn was supposed to receive the accolades and the certificate at the Quebec Annual Convention of Women’s Institutes in June 2020. Due to COVID-19 the Convention was cancelled. Rather than wait to see if there will be an annual convention in June 2021, the certificate and well wishes were sent to Evelyn’s new residence in Kirkland.

Joan Holthe, the President of the Federated Women’s Institutes of Canada sent an accompanying letter of congratulations. Joan was to have been at the June 2020 convention to have given Evelyn her award. COVID-19 changed all that. When the Montreal area lowers its colour zone, several members of the Fordyce branch of the QWI (which meets in Cowansville) will go to visit Evelyn to partake of cake and tea as an additional homage to this remarkable woman.

Evelyn was nominated by her Women’s Institute branch, (Fordyce), along with three accompanying testimonial letters. She was nominated for many reasons.

Evelyn was a dedicated teacher for many years at Cowansville High School which later became Heroes’ Memorial School. She derived great joy from teaching and she bolstered the self-esteem of her students. After she retired she volunteered for many years, until her seventies, as a music teacher for the Kindergarten classes at Heroes’ Memorial. She has supported various end-of-the-school-year book prizes.

She was a founding member of the Heroes’ Memorial Bursary Fund, helping to support students who attended Heroes’ Memorial in their post-secondary studies.

She has been an active member of the Cowansville Chapter #17, of the Order of the Eastern Star, for seventy years. Up until two years ago, she has held an office for each of the fifteen years prior to that. She was the Worthy Matron of the chapter in 1953.

Evelyn was a very active member of the Trinity Anglican Church in Cowansville. She was a member for her entire time of living in the town. She took on many roles as a member of the church and was a backbone of the church.

She has been a member of the Women’s Institute for over sixty years. Evelyn was always on hand to be of help. She was in charge of communications and she wrote monthly articles about the Women’s Institutes, both her branch and beyond, for the Sherbrooke Record. She also wrote about the Order of the Eastern Star for the Sherbrooke Record, too, until about two years ago.

For her whole life, Evelyn has supported and promoted women’s issues and various organizations in the Townships. She is a wonderful role model for what a professional woman can achieve during her career time and afterwards as a volunteer for her community. On top of this, Evelyn successfully raised a happy family.

With a profile such as this, it is no wonder that Evelyn Beban Lewis was selected as Canada’s Woman of the Year. Congratulations!

Florence has the qualities that Adelaide had when she founded the Women's Institute in 1897. Florence is a dedicated Women's Institute and an Eastern Star member who gives back to her community with her leadership skills.

Florence inspired and challenged me to take on the office of Second Vice President of the Quebec Women's Institutes while she was Provincial President. I am glad that she did. It has been a rewarding time and now I have reached the National level as FWIC President. This would never have happened if Florence hadn't taken Helen Routliffe, Sheila Needham and myself aside at a QWI Rally and "begged" all three of us to let our names stand for the executive positions that had all become vacant at the same time.

Florence has been notified that she is the winner of this award. It would be my pleasure to present this award to Florence at the Chateauguay-Huntingdon County Meeting on April 8th, 2016.

The nomination information is available on the FWIC website:
http://fwic.ca/what-we-do/canadian-women-of-the-year-award/