What makes a Woman of Distinction? Meet Michelle Ainsworth

Feature photo: 2016 YWCA Muskoka Women of Distinction nominees (from left) Kerri Valentin, Jill Dunford, Penny Varney, Brenda Rhodes, Alison Brownlee, Kate O’Brien, Michelle Ainsworth, Pamela Terreberry, Amy Wallace, Christina Hunter, Arleigh Luckett, and Alissa Ahsome.

What does it mean to celebrate women? We all know them, sometimes taking for granted their quiet strength and abundant contributions to individual lives and community. YWCA Muskoka aims to bring their accomplishments out into the light.

The 15th annual YWCA Muskoka Women of Distinction Awards Gala, which honours women whose outstanding achievements contribute to the well-being and future of Muskoka, recognized twelve nominees this year and presented the following awards on October 26:

Young Woman of Distinction – Alissa Ahsome
Arts, Culture and Creative Energy – Penny Varney
Business Innovation and Entrepreneurship – Brenda Rhodes
Community Development and Social Activism – Michelle Ainsworth
Health, Sports and Wellness – Jill Dunford
Mentorship – Alison Brownlee
Lifetime Achievement – Arleigh Luckett

The nominations and awards signal to women – all women – that their work is valued. Wendie Donabie, a 2014 award recipient, said in a release, “Receiving this honour encouraged me to keep going even those days when the creative well seems to have run dry. It’s at those times I look in the mirror award we each received and say, ‘You just need to dig a little deeper. It’s there waiting for you.'”

Meet award recipient Michelle Ainsworth

Michelle Ainsworth with her YWCA Woman of Distinction award

Doppler asked Huntsville’s Michelle Ainsworth – recipient of the Community Development and Social Activism award – what receiving this recognition meant for her. Like many women, she struggles to fully accept accolades like these, an unfortunate effect of society’s judgement, but at the same time she knows how important it is that we both bestow these awards and humbly accept the truth in them.

“The keynote speaker (Marcy Hill) said it’s not bragging to highlight your accomplishments or to feel a sense of accomplishment and to be recognized,” says Ainsworth, adding that she agrees but still finds it difficult on a personal level. “It makes me feel uncomfortable, but also blessed and honoured. I’ve done a lot but I don’t want people thinking I’ve done it for recognition. In our society, if a man shares all of his awards and achievements, people think it’s amazing; when a woman does it, she’s told that she’s being boastful or egotistical. There’s a distinct difference between being egotistical and having humble pride about what it is that you do.”

That’s what makes celebrations like Women of Distinction so important, says Ainsworth.

Women are still not treated as equals in our society and from an early age girls are told to be a certain way. It’s getting better but I feel we still have some ways to go. These sorts of award ceremonies and recognition empower not only the women who do this work but everyone around them. It also sends a message to our community that we have so many strong women who are giving back so much and that’s something to be celebrated and recognized. There are amazing men, too, but I don’t feel women are recognized and valued enough in our society as a whole.
Michelle Ainsworth

Ainsworth came to Huntsville just nine years ago, a town where she knew no one, and quickly became part of the community. She started Muskoka and Parry Sound Independent Animal Rescue (now Muskoka Animal Rescue); a volunteer writer for The Great North Arrow; co-founded the Muskoka Vegetarian Association Facebook page; has been a radio host on Hunters Bay Radio for more than five years, first at the helm of Animals & Airwaves which she hopes to revive and also Retro Future Radio (formerly The Spirit of Radio); supported the founding of People’s First Radio; and coordinated the Muskoka Cash Mob in recent years. Ainsworth is hard of hearing and also voluntarily writes a blog for the Canadian Hearing Society to share her experiences with the goal of helping others. All this in addition to her role as Coordinator of Community Development and Participation at Community Living Huntsville for the past nine years.

To talk to her or watch the good work she does in our community, you wouldn’t know that she’s an abuse survivor who suffered greatly through her teens; she has come out stronger at the other end. She’s a mom, a partner, and an advocate for those who don’t have or haven’t yet found a strong voice. She credits her family and her mom, as well as the help she sought out, for providing support when she needed it most.

“As a woman who’s been through these things, I think that it’s important to share that and not be ashamed of it, and to tell others you can overcome really bad things with support but also you have it within yourself to be strong.”

And she has embraced her adopted Huntsville home, working to support others here. “It’s an incredible, amazing, welcoming community. It’s also what you put out there. The community gives back way more than you can ever give it. I didn’t do any of this in a vacuum, it couldn’t be done without people volunteering, collaborating and connecting. The community has embraced me and me them. I just want to give back.”

The YWCA Muskoka Women of Distinction Awards Gala is also a fundraiser to sustain programs for women and girls across Muskoka. Organizers estimate that close to $23,500 was raised this year.

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