WINC - For All Women Veterans Presents the HER2 Awards April 26th

We search for great things that happen in Muskegon, and sometimes those great things not only happen in Muskegon, the extend well past our little neck of the woods. They grow well past what anyone imagined because the need is truly there.  One of those ideas born here is WINC - For All Women Veterans founded by Zaneta Adams.  It's an organization dedicated to women who've served in the military and now need the support of others in their post military life.



When we fist met Zaneta, it was to talk about the organization she founded.  As a wounded veteran, she had found that in her experience with the different retreats and ways to cope were kind of outweighed when it came to the men to women ratio.  Some of the struggles she felt...well, they didn't exactly match what the guys were dealing with when it came to healing and resolution both mentally and physically and like anyone who's sparked a dynamic change, if something isn't being done right..do it yourself, and she did just that.  Zaneta along with some friends founded the organization and began to get the word out about the importance of giving women the opportunity to share, rely on each other, find resources and build that safety net of humanity to sustain and heal.

Get Tickets for the HER2 Awards Ceremony

The organization has grown, the message is spreading and it's time to add a layer of recognition to things.  Thursday April 26th at the Folkert Community Hub at 6:30p there will be a great new ceremony called the "HER2" Military Women of Excellence awards.  The awards are centered around the acronym, HER - "Honor, Encourage, Empower and Revive and Restore" (HER2)  women in the military.  Awards will be presented to both veterans and women in the community who go above and beyond for veterans.  Honorees will be coming in from all over the country, there will be celebrity guests, and a Key Note Speaker Michelle Jones who is the very first female Command Sargent Major of the US Army Reserves.  This event also serves as a fund raiser to help the organization with the services they provide for our female veterans and they hope too to add a military sexual trauma retreat this year.  A staggering statistic is that 75% of the women who attended the retreats in the past are survivors of military sexual trauma and the need was seen to focus an event centered around just that.

Zaneta and I had a chance to sit down and catch up on WINC and learn a little more about the HER2 event coming up.  Take a listen.

It's an amazing outreach and innovative approach.  It's also so great to see something that can change the world take off right here in Muskegon.  For as much as we're all kind of the same, some of the coping mechanisms we use are different and Zaneta's vision to change the way that women veterans can use the power of each other to recuperate and recover from what they knew..it's truly remarkable.  As we spoke in the interview, her injury while serving was a hint to her that there was a higher purpose for her after her time was up and she's really gone on to take that gift to the next level in the care of others.  If you'd like to know more about WINC For All Women Veterans, click on the image below to visit their website.