#Barrie - Women in Business pays tribute to local ladies

Nominees and winners for the Barrie Examiner's seventh annual Women in Business luncheon gathered after the event, held at the Barrie Country Club Thursday.MARK WANZEL/BARRIE EXAMINER/QMI AGENCY

There was enough girl power in the room to keep the lights on.

The seventh annual Women in Business event at the Barrie Country Club – that began with a neighbourhood power outage – was handled with enough aplomb and humour to set the mood for the women's business award ceremony, Thursday.

From a humorous keynote address by the newly minted Barrie Police Chief Kimberley Greenwood, to the quick wit of KOOL FM's Dale Smith as master of ceremonies, the 200 women and men in attendance enjoyed a relaxed, well-organized luncheon and charity auction that raised $7,680 for the Canadian Cancer Society.

“That's the most money we've raised to date for the cancer society,” said Barrie Examiner publisher and event organizer Sandy Davies.

“It is so nice to honour the women in our community, because so many of them work so hard and don't get the recognition for what they've accomplished. I'm glad I don't have to decide who wins the Woman of the Year award – that's a separate committee – because there are so many deserving businesswomen.”

The Woman of the Year award went to Jane DeCola of Brabary on Commerce Park Drive.

DeCola said she was both shocked and honoured by the award.

“Did you not see the list? There are a lot of women here who are very deserving,” DeCola said.

In the business of sizing and selling women's undergarments, DeCola said she started her business more than eight years ago because she was tired of driving to Toronto for the same service.

With several full and part-time staff, DeCola said their mandate is to take the guess work out of bra-fittings and sell quality products.

DeCola is also an avid community volunteer with several charities including Hospice Simcoe, Relay for Life and the Canadian Cancer Society.

Laurie Crosson offered her services as a business coach and said she simply helped DeCola focus in on her own strengths.

“She's so open to assessing her own challenges and finding ways to overcome them, it's wonderful to see her win this award,” Crosson said.

Kathy Currie-Eyres won the Heart & Soul award. She was out of the province, so her daughter accepted the award on her behalf.

And Christina Petsinis of Lakehead University, and a former Innisdale Secondary School student, won the Future Woman of the Year award.

Not only is Petsinis an honour student and recipient of the President's Scholarship, she was also recognized for helping to create the Sportapalooza event at Innisdale for several hundred special needs children.

In her address, Greenwood spoke of being one of 110 women in a mix of 5,000 men at the Metropolitan Toronto Police force when she started more than 30 years ago.

Greenwood said she had many firsts, including the first woman to run the community response unit, the first female staff sergeant to take maternity leave, the first female commander of one of the busiest divisions in Toronto, the first director of the Toronto Police College and the first female chief of police in Barrie.

She spoke of her early years wearing a skirt and a silly cap, having to share the public washroom with prisoners (because there were no women's facilities), as well as working undercover to portray a bank teller and having to tackle a bank robber when he held up the bank.

Yet, as much as she spoke of her early days as an officer, she now believes the “brass ceiling has been smashed” and that policing is an exciting career for women to chose for a profession.

“In my heart, I believe in Canada, decisions are not made on race, not made on gender and not made on culture,” she said. “I used to say I want to make a difference and now I want to be that difference.”

After the power was restored and lunch was served by staff who gave no indication they had been getting by using just gas stoves and generators, auctioneer Scott Ward ran a vigorous auction with items donated by local businesses.

One of the most popular items bid upon was the four-hour tactical unit training experience with the Barrie Police Service that began at $300 and was eventually sold to Shannon Murree of Re/Max Chay for $3,000.

Credit Cheryl Brown