![\"Audrey](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/images_news-2020_A.Andersson-international_womens-day.jpg\" "\\"Audrey")
<\/a>Andersson was a keynote speaker at the event and confesses she was totally surprised to also find herself as an award recipient. \u201cBeing a woman in leadership is an amazing journey, a challenging journey, a roller coaster journey; a journey which is at times gruelling, but ultimately is rewarding and offers opportunities I never imagined,\u201d she told participants.<\/p>\nHaving enjoyed a career in publishing and communication before becoming the Executive Secretary of the Swedish Union Conference, Andersson became the first and currently the only female Executive Secretary of the 13 World Divisions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. \u201cThis year\u2019s hashtag is #EachforEqual, or creating the reality where we are not talking of male and female leaders, rather just leaders,\u201d she emphasised, noting that a gender balance in leadership allows for a richer variety of gifts and abilities to be brought to the table.<\/p>\n
Andersson was joined by Vicki Costello, General Manager of Watford’s Intu Shopping Centre. Costello started working for a clothing retailer and, passing through a Customer Services route, became one of just four females out of Intu’s 18 managers. <\/p>\n
\u201cBoth women gave inspiring talks detailing their own rise to leadership in what was formerly a man’s world and encouraging girls to widen their horizons and accept that anything is possible,\u201d stated Enock Kanageraj, organiser of the event. <\/p>\n
The event provided Stanborough Park Church with an opportunity to engage with the local community through its \u2018One Vision\u2019 project, led by church member Enoch Kanagaraj. The project has brought together a large number of local groups and charities as an ‘action group’ which aims to ‘share resources and skills and provide training, empower communities, raise funds and create a better everyday life in the town. It provides a forum for members to network, exchange ideas, share information and skills, support each other and provide a voice for the disadvantaged. As the group meet monthly in The Stanborough Centre, the church naturally hosted the well-attended occasion.<\/p>\n Ten women were presented with a ‘Community Impact Award’, recognising the contributions they made to the local community. This included a now-retired former TED staff member, Pat Walton. She was recognised for her fundraising skills, setting up the weekly Soup Run, which has been serving London\u2019s homeless for three decades, taking over and running the Emergency Furniture Unit before it came under the umbrella of the area\u2019s Community Services and rebranded as \u2018Nine Lives\u2019 charity of which she is trustee, and, especially, organising the church\u2019s highly-regarded Welfare Service and Annual Toy Service providing toys for disadvantaged local children at Christmas. <\/p>\n A second ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ was presented to Alicia Shaw, who has recently retired from her role as a Chief Inspector Hertfordshire police force \u2013 the first woman from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community. She was also a hostage negotiator in the process and finding herself being called out at all times of the day and night dealing with potential suicides.<\/p>\n<\/a>Perhaps the most memorable person to receive the award was 86-year-old Barbara Hankin who must be Hertfordshire’s oldest ‘Lollipop Lady’. She has stood outside Leavesden Green Primary School in Watford in all weathers for the past 11 years helping children and their carers across the road. She knows all the children’s names and is much loved by them all. She also finds the time to be a prison visitor and is a regular member of the Church\u2019s Singing Group which visits different care homes each Sabbath afternoon. Many residents are a lot younger than her! Barbara is the mother of TED receptionist, Geraldine Hankin with whom she shares the same positive, caring spirit. She was one of two women to receive a Lifetime Achievement award.<\/p>\n