JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Womentum announced today that Michelle Rooks has been chosen to receive the 2018 Turley Onward Award. The award was established in 2014 to honor the inspiration and contributions of one of Womentum’s founding members, Melissa Turley. Annually, this award honors a woman in the Jackson Hole community who has showcased an exceptional commitment to using her intellectual, creative, and charitable spirit to effectuate meaningful social change for women, and is a role model for others.
Rooks is a veteran Middle School teacher. The committee expressed gratitude and respect for her tireless creative work on behalf of girls and women in the community.
Womentoring participant Karen Stewart nominated Rooks, stating, “If you ask any young woman who was lucky enough to have Michelle rooks as a teacher, they will tell you how she influenced their lives by encouraging them always to question, think for themselves, and stand up for their rights as young women.”
Also awarded this year was the Shelley Simonton Memorial Award. It was established to honor the Womentum co-founder who succumbed to cancer in 2017 at the age of 49.
“Shelly was a fantastic combination of community commitment and pure, unadulterated fun,” said Womentum program director Caryn Flanagan. “When considering ways to honor Shelley’s legacy, we came to the swift, unanimous conclusion to establish this award in her memory.”
The 2018 recipient of the Simonton Memorial Award is Joni Upsher. Upsher is a long-time community and business leader who, after losing her husband to cancer, started Meals with a Mission to provide healthy food for patients undergoing cancer treatment. Upsher currently serves as the Volunteer Services Coordinator at St. John’s Medical Center. She recently started another small business, Hole Health Coaching, aimed at helping others achieve their best life.
April Norton nominated Upsher, saying, “Joni epitomizes the term ‘role model’ and serves the community with humility and grace.”
Both the Turley Onward Award and the Shelley Simonton Memorial Award are cash awards (supplied by an anonymous donor) to be designated to the local nonprofits of the recipients’ choice. Rooks designated her award funds to G.A.P. and Upsher designated her award funds to Hole Food Rescue.
