WATERVILLE — Hardy Girls Healthy Women is celebrating Maine girls in its eighth annual Girls Rock! Weekend, April 10-11. The conference will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day and will be held at Colby College in Waterville and King Middle School in Portland. This weekend also includes the seventh annual Girls Rock! Awards Ceremony April 10 in Portland. It recognizes the outstanding accomplishments of six Maine girls, according to a news release by Hardy Girls Healthy Women.
Girls Rock! Weekend celebrates girls’ voices in art, music, literature and society, and the awards honor girls who are using their voices in bold and powerful ways to make Maine a better place for all girls. The weekend entails the awards ceremony and two conferences planned and executed by a talented group of high school girls from Maine, the Hardy Girls Healthy Women Girls Advisory Board, according to the release. They will present on topics including Redefining Popularity, Selfies and Feminism 101. Girls in fourth-eighth grade are eligible to attend the conference.
The award winners and awards to be honored at the Girls Rock! Awards Ceremony:
• Jamee Fillmore, 17, of Topsham, the Against the Odds Advocate award for overcoming addiction and becoming a peer mentor inspiring others at her school.
• Jessica Smith, 15, of Burnham, the Entrepreneurship award for using her promotional skills to elevate her band, The Resistance, to be Maine’s premier youth/young adult live act.
• Karen Noble, 17, of Bangor, the STEM-gineer award for making the STEM fields accessible to other girls by starting a Summer Technology Camp for girls in Maine.
• Lilly Wakeman, 17, of Addison, the Title IX Champion award for using her rights to join the football team at her school and becoming a role model for the girls at her school.
• Muna Mohamed, 17, of Lewiston, the Community Organizer award for rallying her school, peers and community around the conversation of Black Lives Matter and continuing to facilitate dialogue about race relations at her school.
• Nimco Isack, 13, of Portland, the Health Promoter award for making her community a healthier place by organizing a food drive and creating a food pantry at her school for those living with food insecurity.
All of the event proceeds will go towards Hardy Girls programming. To learn more about Hardy Girls programs and events, visit www.hghw.org or call 861-8131.
The cost of the Girls Rock! Awards Ceremony is $20 per person. The Girls Rock! Conference early bird registration is $20 (after April 3 the cost is $25) with full and partial scholarships available.
Girls Healthy Women is a national, research-based nonprofit organization in Waterville, working to ensure that all women and girls feel empowered and experience equality, independence and safety in their everyday lives.
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