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Meet Kelowna's 'Woman of the Year'

Pamela Pearson is on a roll.

After coming off a game-changing year as president of the 1,000-member Kelowna Chamber of Commerce, she's just won 'Woman of the Year' from 250-member Kelowna Women in Business.

"Kelowna Women in Business has 20 judges for that award, so I definitely would have liked to have been in the room to hear what they said about me," said Pearson with a laugh.

"But, I think what they're probably recognizing is that I support women in my own organization."

</who> Pamela Pearson picked up the 'Woman of the Year' trophy at the recent RISE Awards put on by Kelowna Women in Business.

Pearson is director of operations at Sentes Automotive, which has four car dealerships in the city -- Kelowna Nissan, Kelowna Infiniti, Lexus of Kelowna and Kelowna Mercedes-Benz

"In the past, automotive has been a male-dominated business," she pointed out.

"On International Women's Day (in March) we celebrated that we have almost parity of men and women at some of our stores. And it's not just women in administrative roles, but women mechanics, women sales advisers and women in the parts and service and detailing departments."

The 'Woman of the Year' accolade, according to Kelowna Women in Business verbiage, recognizes a woman who represents the organization's values and mission, demonstrates inclusivity, is a champion for women in the workforce and is actively involved in the community.

Pearson, emphatically, is all of the above.

As president of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce last year, she created more awareness of the group's networking, luncheon and awards programs through her personal social media.

"I wanted to let people know that the chamber is fun, youthful and vibrant," she said.

"I wanted to also let people know that they don't have to be a chamber member to show up at one of our events with a friend and have a good time and make connections. And when you make connections, business will just take care of itself because you'll want to collaborate or work with some of the people you meet."

Pearson also touted the chamber's policy and advocacy work of taking resolutions to the BC Chamber of Commerce annual general meeting to have them approved as issues to lobby the provincial government.

Some Kelowna-led lobby issues are getting more rental housing onto market, improving healthcare and saving money with doctor extenders and assistants, scrapping the speculation tax, dropping interprovincial trade barriers for wine, beer and spirits, reforming property transfer tax and supporting the aerospace cluster in Kelowna.

In the past, Kelowna chamber-led lobbies helped bring a passport office here and helped convince the province that the city needed a new floating bridge and the Okanagan Connector as a shorter road route to Vancouver.

Three other women were in the running for 'Woman of the Year' at the organization's recent annual RISE Awards banquet at the Coast Capri Hotel-- Kelly Davidson of Odlum Brown Investments, Tanja Halsall of Potentia Human Resources and Angela Quinn of Angela Quinn Casting.

There were also two other trophies handed out for 'Change Maker of the Year' and the 'Spirit Award'.

</who>Meaghan Duckett of This Space Belongs to You, a program of the LGBTQ community, was named 'Change Maker of the Year'.

The 'Change Maker' winner was Meaghan Duckett of This Space Belongs to You, a program for the LGBTQ community.

The runners up were Kathleen Lemieux of Do Gooders, Amanda Shatzko of Impact Tool Box and Danielle Walker of Grant Thornton Accountants.

</who>Laurence Rich of FleuRich Floral Design won the Spirit Award.

The 'Spirit' winner was Laurence Rich of FleuRich Floral Design.

Finalists in that category were Coralee Miller of Sncewips Heritage Museum, Sandra Hartwick of Olive & Denton Indigenous Handmade Earrings and Sami Brar of Bibi Agency and community and Indigenous relations with FortisBC.

Pearson describes her year as chamber president and her 'Woman of the Year' award as "momentous and momentum-building".

"I don't want to lose that momentum," she said.

"Past-president of the chamber is still a very active role. I'm off to the BC Chamber AGM in Whistler shortly. And I want to make sure Kelowna Women In Business are proud that they chose me as 'Woman of the Year'."

Pearson isn't quite sure what that next chapter is, but is certain it will involve "rising up and giving back."

In the meantime, she continues to work full-time at Sentes and volunteer full-time with the chamber.

But, she also plans to take a breather this summer and "spend some time by the pool and get to know her family again," she said with another laugh.



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