ATHENA INTERNATIONAL -

INDIANA COUNTY AWARDS PROGRAM PLANNED FOR WEDNESDAY, OCT. 25; NOMINATIONS BEING ACCEPTED NOW, DUE SEPT. 1! 

SPADAFORA FAMILY OF INDIANA WILL PRESENT INAUGURAL SPADAFORA ATHENA SCHOLARSHIP TOTALING $5,000 TO AREA HIGH SCHOOL ATHENA CLUB SENIOR

Distribution Date: June 5, 2023

INDIANA, Pa. – The Indiana County ATHENA Leadership Award Recipients, working closely with the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce and the Leader’s Circle Awards group, has announced a new format for the 2023 ATHENA and ATHENA Young Professional Award presentation and celebration.

The awards presentation, scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 25 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Indiana Country Club, will include attendance by area ATHENA Club students and the inaugural presentation of the Spadafora Family ATHENA Scholarship.

This $5,000 scholarship, donated by the Spadafora family of Indiana, will be given to a high school senior from an Indiana County ATHENA club. This scholarship is established in honor and memory of the late Chuck Spadafora, who initiated the awards in Indiana and Pennsylvania. Spadafora received the ATHENA Leadership Award in 2002.

The awards presentation event and celebration, traditionally held as an evening event as part of the Indiana County Leader’s Circle, will be a daytime luncheon this year, and will include the award finalists and guests with students from ATHENA clubs from schools in Indiana, River Valley, and Marion Center as special guests of honor.

Colonial Motor Mart and the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce are event sponsors. Renda Broadcasting and the Indiana Gazette are co-sponsors.

The luncheon presentation and celebration is open to the community; more information about registration for the event will be announced in September through the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce.

Community businesses, organizations and clubs, and individuals are invited to make nominations for the ATHENA Leadership Award and the ATHENA Young Professional Award. Nominees may be men or women but nominees must reside in Indiana County. Nomination forms will be available on the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce website. Nominations are due by Sept. 1.

Finalists for the awards will be introduced at a special “reveal” event, sponsored by the Indiana County Chamber of Commerce, at Colonial Motor Mart, 349 North Fourth Street, Indiana, on Wednesday, Oct. 11, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

The ATHENA Award recognizes career or professional excellence, leadership in community service, and individuals who mentor and open doors of leadership opportunities for women. The ATHENA Young Professional Award honors an individual who is under the age of 40 and who demonstrates excellence, creativity, and initiative in his or her business or profession. A committee from outside Indiana County judge the nominations.

“The Leader’s Circle Awards Committee has done an excellent job with this important community leadership recognition event,” Indiana County ATHENA Recipients Group chair Ellen Ruddock said. Ruddock is the first ATHENA Award recipient in Pennsylvania and Indiana County and is retired as a director emerita of the ATHENA International Board of Directors.

Since 2013 (with years missed in 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the Indiana County ATHENA Recipient group has hosted an Emerging Women Leaders luncheon to celebrate and inspire middle and high school ATHENA Club students, attended by many female business leaders in the area, including ATHENA Award and Civic Leader Award recipients.

“The Emerging Women Leaders Luncheon has been a great success,” Ruddock said. “As we thought about ways to focus on the ATHENA principles, especially the principal of building relationships and encouraging others, we felt that one of the best ways of bringing the examples of leadership to our youth was to join the ATHENA Awards presentation and the Emerging Women Leaders together into one event,” she said. “The Spadafora Family ATHENA Scholarship is an excellent way of demonstrating the commitment to leadership and excellence that the ATHENA Leadership model is all about, Ruddock said.

“The Spadafora family and Colonial Motor Mart have been champions for youth and for women’s leadership for decades,” Ruddock said. “We are so grateful for their generosity and for their long-time commitment to opening doors of opportunity for so many emerging leaders.”

Application information for the Spadafora Family ATHENA Scholarship will be sent in September to area ATHENA Club advisors.