Loretta Shuler was a finalist in the Dubbo Local Aboriginal Land Council Award for Outstanding Aboriginal Leadership and Outstanding Courage categories.

Barbara Moritz was a finalist in the Award for Outstanding Making Magic.

June Barker was another finalist in the Dubbo Local Aboriginal Land Council Award.

Christina Johansson was selected as a finalist in the Award for Outstanding Community Leadership.

Margaret Mansfield was a finalist in the EEG Coaching Award for Outstanding Inspirational Leadership.

Sandie Thorne was also a finalist in the Award for Outstanding Courage.

Unfortunately none of our local ladies was successful in her bid to bring home a WOW Award.

However committee member from WOW, a volunteer organisation that provides women from the Orana and Central West regions and beyond with opportunities to extend their personal and business networks, Jan Grady said that it was outstanding to see so many women from one region picked as finalists.

More than 120 people attended the WOW Awards from Wellington, Mudgee, Narromine, Coonabarabran, Warren, Tooraweenah and Gilgandra, among other places.

Ms Grady said it was a shame that some of the nominees from Lightning Ridge were unable to attend the awards because it clashed with the Opal Festival. The WOW Committee is already looking at dates for next year to see if they can avoid this in the future.

Ms Grady said the awards had helped to raise awareness of the organisation and its potential to play a significant role within the region.

“We’ve received a lot of expressions of interest about establishing local sub-branches since the awards, which was the intention of the founding committee when WOW was established 15 years ago,” said Ms Grady.

She said the committee was very interested in coming out to Lightning Ridge to talk to people in the community about the possibility of establishing what could potentially be WOW’s first sub-branch out here.

Ms Grady said if anyone from Lightning Ridge was interested in getting more actively involved in WOW, they can contact her on 0429 821 425.