As Membership Chair, Suzanne welcomes and engages members in SICWO. Her positivity, exuberance and strong beliefs in all that SI is and all it achieves, is evident in every encounter the members have with her.
Suzanne humbly acknowledges her upbringing in a privileged family, with ancestors from the UK, Germany, Poland, Jewish and French-Canadian backgrounds. She was not privy to gender-based violence until she became the first Executive Director of a women’s shelter and was exposed to society’s patriarchal dominance, driving her to become a radical feminist in her early thirties. She also worked with Indigenous women in northern Alberta, asking them to face the realities of their situation and the power they had to create change. Suzanne is most proud of the actions they took to create a petition, meet with health representatives, and move into political power.
A lifelong learner, Suzanne obtained a Masters in Adult Education. She co-owned a toy store for 20 years with her sister-in-law. When she moved to B.C. she launched Blue Heron Art, art about places people love, a business all about the sense of belonging. Isn’t that what SI is all about too? That we all belong together as members, and that we help women and girls around the world, to ensure they too feel they belong in a place of equal opportunity.
“Connecting people, realising we are all one,” is what brings Suzanne joy. And seeing women and especially girls realize their power. Her favourite Soroptimist moment is reading the feedback from a girl at Dream It, Be It, who wrote, “we can do anything we want, everyone has their own path, and life is not linear, and I always thought it was.”
Suzanne continues inspiring, motivating, and accepting everyone in her circle, as she says, “We do the best we can with the resources we have. So, when someone is feeling guilty about not contributing ‘enough’ or like they are under water, I say that and remind them that ‘resources’ means everything including emotional bandwidth, time, energy level, as well as money or skills or knowledge.”
It is no wonder her favourite song is from Little River Band – there are so many paths up the mountain, but the view from the top is the same. Suzanne will tell you: everyone has the same basic needs for love and belonging as well as food and shelter and safety, and peoples or countries have different ways of doing things and they all work!”