The winners of Soroptimist International of Mariposa’s 2017 Live Your Dream Award are Jennifer Rider (1st place) and Laura Phillips (2nd place). The Soroptimist Live Your Dream Awards (formerly the Women’s Opportunity Awards) assists women who provide the primary source of financial support for their families by giving them the resources they need to improve their education, skills and employment prospects. 
(Pictured l-r): Award Committee Member Dee Carr, 1st place Winner Jennifer Rider, Award Committee Chair Sandy Semtner, 2nd place Winner Laura Phillips, Award Committee Members Patricia Wight, Patricia Perry and Anita Starchman Bryant
Through Soroptimist International each year, more than $1.6 million in education grants are awarded to more than 1,200 women, many of whom have overcome enormous obstacles. Live Your Dream Awards recipients may use the cash award to offset any costs associated with their efforts to attain higher education, such as books, childcare, tuition and transportation.
In addition to providing the primary financial support for their families, eligible applicants must be enrolled in, or have been accepted to, a vocational/skills training program or an undergraduate degree program and must demonstrate financial need.
The Live Your Dream Awards involves three levels of cash awards. The program begins at the local Soroptimist club-level, where award amounts vary. Local-level award recipients become eligible for region-level awards of either $3,000 or $5,000. Region-level award recipients then become eligible to receive one of three international-level awards of $10,000.
Since the Live Your Dream Awards program began in 1972, about $30 million in education grants have been disbursed to assist tens of thousands of women achieve their dreams of a better life for themselves and their families. In 2007, the program received the Associations Advance America Summit Award—ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership's highest level of recognition.
This award is made possible through local Soroptimist fundraisers, including the upcoming Spring Fiesta Dinner & Dance on Saturday, March 25, 2017 at the Mariposa Fairgrounds, Sequoia Room, featuring a taco bar dinner. Tickets are $25. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. Dinner served at 6:30 p.m. Dance to the music of D.J. Mark Carpenter. There will also be a silent auction, huge raffle, and a no host bar featuring frozen margaritas.
Anita Starchman Bryant, Publicity Chair
