STEUBENVILLE — Five area women will be celebrated and up for Woman of the Year honors when the Ohio Valley Business and Professional Women’s Club holds its annual Wine and Shoe Extravaganza on April 28 at the Mingo Knights of Columbus Hall.
Patrons of the fundraiser for scholarships the club awards will have the opportunity to vote for the Woman of the Year from the field of nominees that includes Shannon Irvin, Sara Lane, Lisa Mort, Amy Parikakis and Rosann Trimmer. Truck Accessories
The event provides “a fun night out,” an opportunity for attendees to take home winnings from a 50-50 drawing and Chinese auction items, and the chance to vote not only for Woman of the Year but also in the Best of Shoe Runway Contest and for the best celebrity server.
The fundraiser generates money for the organization to give back to the community through scholarships awarded to local high school students.
Tickets to the event are $30 per person or tables of 10 for $300 and include wine and hors d’oeuvres. For tickets, contact Julie Decker, club president and event chair, at (740) 632-9972 or any Ohio Valley BPW member.
Checks can be made out to Ohio Valley BPW and sent to Decker at 2834 state Route 213, Steubenville OH 43952.
The Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the end of the event as the grand finale.
In addition to Decker, planning committee members for the extravaganza include emcees Phyllis Riccadonna and Jeanine Sawon, Megan Presley, Annie Campbell, Martina Watkins, Mari Ann Ohba, Angela Goodrich and Amelia Taggart.
The BPW will be holding its monthly meeting Tuesday to finalize plans for the event.
A look at the nominees in alphabetical order follows with information the honorees provided:
Irvin is a native of Wintersville and daughter of “Doc Price,” who practiced dentistry in the area for more than 50 years, and Judith Price, with whom she works as a Realtor for Cedar One Realty.
She graduated from Catholic Central High School and attended West Virginia University where she earned a full-ride scholarship playing D-1 tennis, completing her time there with a degree in advertising and marketing. After graduation, Irvin traveled many miles with Continental Airlines before landing back in her hometown. She was the tennis coach of the men’s and women’s teams at Franciscan University of Steubenville for eight years before stepping down to volunteer coach at CCHS in order to devote more time to her family and community.
She said she strives to “give back” and actively participates in many charitable institutions, especially when she can get her children involved. In the past she has participated in the Day of Caring with the United Way of Jefferson County, helped with the food distribution at Urban Mission Ministries and volunteered at the Samaritan House and L.A.M.P.
A favorite event, she noted, was “Off Da Hook” sponsored by Fires of God Ministries, which allowed innercity children an opportunity to experience the joys of fishing, many for the first time. In winter months, she’s helped tie scarves around utility poles downtown, hoping new owners could put them to use during cold weather. Irvin served as a member of the now-closed Neighborhood House that gave local at-risk youth a daily respite from difficult family circumstances.
Irvin and her husband reside in Steubenville with their five children. After obtaining her real estate license, she worked to become the No. 1 Realtor in Jefferson and surrounding counties for the last three years since becoming an agent in 2018.
She is a member of the Wintersville Woman’s Club; a supporter of Hilltop Children’s House Montessori School and the Sycamore Youth Center; is on the gala committee for the Ohio Valley Health Center; and serves on the Jefferson County Prevention and Recovery Board.
She and her family are going to Guatemala this summer with the World Help Organization to assist in construction and water treatment projects.
Irvin identifies “her only mission is to be better than the person she was yesterday … one day at a time.”
Sara Lane, a member of the Ohio Valley BPW since 2010 when she moved back to Steubenville, earned her bachelor’s of business degree with a major in accounting from Kent State University.
Yearning for warmer weather, she started her business career in Charleston, S.C., working as a staff accountant for American Residential Services.
An opportunity to advance her career with Enterprise Rent-a-Car involved a move to Lakewood, Ohio, where she served as a car sales accountant for four years and built what she called a great foundation of best practices that she would carry with her throughout her career.
While her friends joked that she was the unofficial mayor of Steubenville, as she was proud of where she came from, Lane quit her job to move home and be a nanny to her niece, Lizzy.
Lane and her sister, Amelia Taggart, ultimately opened ProTag, a concierge business service in which they did everything from organizing offices to bookkeeping for several local small businesses.
She received an offer from a friend for a temporary analysis on a project for a local LTACH hospital, LifeLine, leading to her acceptance of an accounting position with their sister hospital Vibra in Boardman, Ohio.
She became a senior accountant for LifeLine, and after four years accepted a position at Acuity Specialty Hospital of Ohio Valley as controller. She worked her way up to become the CFO for the last six years.
After a decade in health care, Lane moved to transportation and logistics, accepting the director of finance position for ARL Networks.
Lane, who noted she loves being involved in her community, was a co-founder alongside Billy Petrella of the Jefferson County Young Professionals group. She continues in a mentoring role.
She also serves on the board for Ohio Valley Natural Relief.
Lane is the chair for the Steubenville High School NIKE club and works with its teacher administrator, Katrina Morrow, to mentor the girls and prepare them for the business world. They offer a shadow program with the members of the OVBPW to help build a network in the area they would like to start their careers.
The Ohio Valley BPW, Lane explained, is one of the only in the nation to still hold a sister club in the high school.
Lane is chair of the BPW’s scholarship committee and was a former president.
She is the daughter of Ferruccio and Kris Provenzano and resides with her husband, Scott Lane, a teacher, at Steubenville High School. They have an 8-year-old daughter, Scarlett, and 3-year-old twin boys, Arturo and Vito.
Mort noted that she believes in the personal power of oneself and works with each client to help them rediscover their self-worth and higher truth.
She experienced a profound transformation during her first breathwork session when she was attending a wellness retreat in Costa Rica. The impact that this practice had on her personally was life-changing, she explained.
After working 29 years behind the chair as a hairstylist and mentor, she was inspired to become a certified Elemental Rhythm Breathwork facilitator and Breathwork Integration Coach. From here she furthered her education and became certified to train breathwork facilitators across the world.
Mort is the owner of Compass Center for Wellbeing in Steubenville, which she noted is one of the few centers in the United States solely dedicated to breathwork.
With an individualistic and holistic approach, she pulls from a toolbox of intuitive thinking, therapeutic conversation, breathwork, and meditation to guide clients deep into a higher state of consciousness, she explained.
She guides and coaches people to intimately connect with their breath as a pathway for transformation. This work is deep and transformative. Along with group classes, she offers private group sessions and private one-on-one mentoring. She leads corporate wellness days, retreats and workshops in the United States and internationally.
Mort is a certified Canfield Transformational Coach, an Elemental Rhythm Breathwork facilitator, a Breathwork Integration coach and a breathwork facilitator trainer.
Amy Parikakis is the director of marketing and communications at First Westminster Presbyterian Church in Steubenville.
She noted she “enthusiastically serves the Lord and loves her ministry role working alongside the Rev. Jason Elliott and the First West team.”
She said she is committed to building faithful relationships and streamlining communications through a growing online ministry. By using creative marketing outreach efforts to cultivate discipleship, Parikakis described herself as “passionate about living out the mission to Love God and Love Others.”
Parikakis earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Akron in business organizational communications with an emphasis in public relations and a minor in sales management. She obtained a master’s degree in higher education administration in 2011. She holds a career technical education license through the state of Ohio and previously taught at Steubenville High School before to coming to the church full-time.
A 2006 graduate of Steubenville High School, Parikakis plays an active role in the community as an ambassador for the youth. She helps organize EDGE Sports and character education in the local schools, works closely with the Cancer Dietary Initiative and is a member of the Steubenville Baseball Association Board.
She is the daughter of Mark and Joni Colantoni of Steubenville and resides in Steubenville with her husband, Peter, and their 5-year-old daughter, Jona.
Born and raised in Steubenville, Trimmer knew when she was 5 that she would be working in medicine.
“I was in my doctor’s office and watching the other kids crying, and I was fascinated by the cotton balls and the tongue depressors and the smell of alcohol. I knew then that I was going to do something to help people when I got older. I never lost that ambition, and I felt that God placed a calling in my heart, and nothing would stop me from reaching my goals of helping others,” she wrote.
“I initially started my career graduating from Jefferson Technical Institute with an associate degree in applied science. I then worked for 16 years for Dr. John Mantica, who mentored me and encouraged me to further my education, for which to this day I am very thankful,” noted Trimmer, who graduated from Ohio Valley Hospital School of Nursing in 1991 and graduated from Wheeling Jesuit University with a bachelor’s degree in nursing. She earned her master’s degree in nursing in 1999 from Duquesne University.
“I have worked collaboratively with Dr. John Figel even prior to becoming a nurse practitioner and worked with him for almost 30 years. I am currently employed by Trinity Health System under the direction of Dr. Figel,” she added.
“My community has always been very important to me. My career has been very challenging and very busy; however, I’ve never lost the passion to help my patients and the community,” Trimmer noted. “I volunteered many hours throughout the Ohio Valley, and the most enjoyable was at the former Fourth Street Health Clinic in Steubenville for about seven years. This is a wonderful clinic that helps medically indigent patients with free medical care and medications and was proud to be a part of it. I currently am a preceptor for the nurse practitioner students who are working on their MSN in nursing, and I provide free tutoring for nurses who need help working on their RN,” she added.
She and her husband of 51 years, Richard, have a daughter, Katina, an attorney who works as executive director of I Know I Can in Columbus. It helps provide the tools to underprivileged children receive the education they deserve. Her husband, Craig, also is an attorney and practices corporate and business law.
Trimmer’s family also includes two grandchildren, Dominic and Aurora.
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