4 Rad Girls were just awarded for their social impact work
May 4, 2016 Category: Event, Medium, PeopleIt’s a high compliment to be considered one of the raddest women in Philadelphia.
The second annual Rad Awards were held last night at Stratus Rooftop Lounge as part of Philly Tech Week. The event is an offshoot of rad-girls.com, which celebrates awesome local women. Both are operated by content strategist Leah Kauffman. (Disclaimer: I know it’s a high compliment because I was nominated for a category. Didn’t win, though.)
Here are the winners of the social impact-related categories.
Nonprofit of the Year: Yael Lehmann of The Food Trust
Lansie Sylvia of Here’s My Chance (and of Generocity column fame) presented this one with the preface, “I think we have one of the best — if not the best — nonprofit sectors in the country.” Accordingly, in her acceptance speech, Lehmann gave individual shoutouts to the other nominees. “I just want to say that all the other nonprofits, I have a lot of respect for,” she said.
Activist of the Year: Kristin Schwab of Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance
As PACA’s co-op organizer, Schwab will help run its “20 Book Clubs, 20 Co-Op Businesses” project, which the org is funding through a Knight Cities Challenge grant. The project will launch a co-op book club in 20 Philly neighborhoods in hopes of inspiring communities to form their own.
Educator of the Year: Marley Dias of #1000BlackGirlBooks
Marley opened her acceptance speech with, “I’m 11.” Indeed, the fifth-grader was honored for her campaign to collect 1,000 books about black girls because she was tired of finding books about white boys and their dogs in her school library. She’s far succeeded her goal — NPR reports she collected over 4,000 by March.
Kauffman followed her speech with, “My 11-year-old self is embarrassed for me for what I was doing at 11.” Same.
Innovator of the Year: Yasmine Mustafa of ROAR for Good
Mustafa’s “fashionable safety jewelry” that aims to stop sexual assaults has gotten a huge amount of buzz in the past year — including by raising 666 percent of its crowdfunding goal — and the product hasn’t even been released yet. But she’s started a meaningful conversation about how we deal with rape culture in the meantime.