Women celebrated at morning event

More than 100 women were in attendance at the Whitefish Lake First Nation Community Centre Saturday to celebrate the 22nd annual Friendship Morning.

The Penage Road Women’s Institute has hosted the annual event to celebrate women in the community and encourage others to reach their full potential in their professional and personal lives.

“It’s fun to bring people together,” said Elaine Hull, one of the event’s organizers.
Hull said the Friendship Morning is as much a social event, as an opportunity to network and hear from successful women.

The 2016 event tied in with International Women’s Day, which took place on March 8, and flags from around the world decorated the various tables.

Local author Delphine Nussey was one of the morning’s guest speakers.

Nussey collected around 300 letters she wrote to her granddaughter in how book, “Letters to Ellie.”

“She taught me about joy and living in the now,” she said.

Nussey shared her philosophy about living in the moment with those in attendance.
Gender parity in the workplace was also one of the day’s themes.

Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas attended the event, and spoke about her own experience in the historically male-dominated world of Canadian politics.

“When I got to Queen’s Park everything around me was telling me, ‘You don’t belong there,’” she said.

But Gélinas said there has been a lot of improvement for women in politics since she was first elected to Queen’s Park in 2007.

She said the NDP caucus now has more women than men, for example, but added only 30 per cent of Ontario’s MPPs are women.

She said she is convinced things would improve for the province if there was full gender parity at Queen’s Park.