Amira Fox was honored as a Woman of Distinction – Trailblazer as well as Woman of the Year.

Women of Distinction Lee County, “a group of dynamic women volunteers focused on building a stronger community in Cape Coral and throughout Lee County,” held its 4th annual gala celebration at the Cape Coral Yacht Club to recognize women in eight different categories. 

“We had a wonderful event honoring some amazing women in Lee County at the 4th annual Women of Distinction Gala,” said the organization’s chair, Susan McNamara. “We worked closely with the city of Cape Coral and Parks & Rec to meet all CDC guidelines.”

Attendance for the event was limited to 50% capacity of the facility. 

Headlining the night of awards was State Attorney for the 20th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Amira Fox, who took home Woman of the Year and Trailblazer honors. 

Doris Cortese was honored with a Lifetime of Leadership Award.

“I am proud and humbled to be recognized among the women nominated who devote so much of themselves to our community,” Fox told the Breeze Tuesday. 

McNamara also shared her thoughts. 

“Amira is definitely a trailblazer,” she said. “She is the first female State Attorney in the 20th Judicial Circuit. She has been integral in keeping the lowest crime rate in Florida for the last seven years. She is a cancer survivor who never missed a day of work. She’s a mother of four, including a son who survived a brain tumor. She has had tremendous success since being elected. She’s been involved in the community forever, volunteers her time with numerous organizations. She has won various awards over her career. Her nomination form is loaded with accolades.”

Winners included:

* Donna Honc as the Woman of Distinction – Business

* Lizbeth Benaquisto as the Woman of Distinction – Elected Official

* Jazmin Clark as the Woman of Distinction – Health & Wellness

* Deputy Donna Daiossa-McNally as the Woman of Distinction – Hometown Hero

* Linda Fuller and Katie Bohanon as the co-Woman of Distinction – Humanitarian

* Karen Scott as the Woman of Distinction – Mentoring/Education

* Angela Melvin as the Woman of Distinction – Not For Profit Business Leader

* Amira Fox as the Woman of Distinction – Trailblazer 

* Doris Cortese was honored with a Lifetime of Leadership Award 

* Amira Fox as Woman of the Year

According to McNamara, every year a committee reviews every nomination and divides them into appropriate categories. They have a panel of seven community leaders who serve as judges who read every nomination (141 this year, a record).

“All nominations are redacted so that the judges can judge as fairly as possible without the telling information about the candidate, such as their name or company name,” she said. “Nominations are all assigned an identifying number. Each judge provides his or her ranking of first, second and third in each category. All rankings are then combined to determine the winners in each category. For the first time, we had a tie in one category, so we decided to honor both women. We had so many great women from which to choose that the choice is never easy.

“The judges are looking for what each nominee has accomplished and contributed to the Lee County community. Each category is obviously a little different. And the categories change each year based on the nominees. We let the nominees dictate the categories. For the first time this year, we separated out the women who are employed by a non-profit, as opposed to those who volunteer their time. They are each amazing women and do so much, but we had so many nominations this year that we thought they needed separate recognition.”

Once the winners are determined, the committee reviews each of the nominations from the category winners and ranks them in order of who they think best exemplifies “Woman of the Year.”

The rankings are combined to determine the overall winner. 

Proceeds of the event benefit the Frances Keogh Second Chance Scholarship. This scholarship is named after 94-year-old Cape resident Frances Keogh who has dedicated her life to helping women and conservative causes. This year the organization was able to award three $1,000 scholarships to three deserving women: Jennifer Schoenbeck, Riley Leisman and Kim Morrow.

Leisman is planning on attending Florida Atlantic University to pursue her master’s degree, Morrow is currently attenting Florida SouthWestern State College and Schoenbeck is taking courses through Walden University Minneapolis.

McNamara said “every possible precaution was taken to keep people safe and all guidelines were followed” when it came to hosting the event at the Yacht Club. 

Masks were available for anyone choosing to do so but were not mandated. McNamara said bottles of hand sanitizer were on every table as well as two stations around the room. 

Women of Distinction Lee County was organized in 2017. For more information, visit www.womenofdistinctionleecounty.com. 

— Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @haddad_cj