Wing Walker Award moves to WSU
By Amy Geiszler-Jones
An award that honors Wichita women has found a new home at WSU.
When the local Forum for Executive Women disbanded this past fall, it wanted its tradition of giving the Wing Walker Award to continue. Previous recipients have included philanthropists Olive Ann Beech and Velma Wallace and business owner Linda Weir-Enegren.
FEW, founded in the mid-1980s, also wanted to do something with its treasury of nearly $7,500, so it established a scholarship with the WSU Foundation.
The Center for Women’s Studies will now be the entity giving the Wing Walker Award, and students with a major or minor in women’s studies will benefit from the Forum for Executive Women Scholarship. The fund was endowed at $10,000 with a contribution from the center.
"This appears to be a happy solution," said FEW’s last president Sally Dewey. "We’re sad that this organization has folded, but it signifies something was achieved. The group will live on with the scholarship."
FEW’s purpose was to provide networking and support to women in managerial or executive positions. When it disbanded, it had about 70 members. "The glass ceiling is higher and thinner now," Dewey said, "so we felt the organization had fulfilled its goal."
The Wing Walker Award sculpture depicts a woman on the wings of a pilotless biplane and symbolizes courage, daring and taking responsibility in times of great difficulty. It was awarded every two to three years.
Dorothy Miller, director of the Center for Women’s Studies, said the award will continue on that basis. Women’s studies faculty, the center’s community advisory group and former FEW members will determine the recipients.
"We’re happy we’re the organization to carry on the spirit of what the Forum for Executive Women has done," Miller said. "It’s congruent with our support for women leadership in the community."
The first scholarship from the endowed fund will be given in fall 2002.
