By Karen Goh, Executive Director, Garden Pathways

Garden Pathways will honor four outstanding “Women with a Heart for Bakersfield” at the seventh annual High Tea on Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 11:30 a.m. at Seven Oaks County Club. Honorees Susan Handy, Christy Porter, Susie Small and Betty Younger have a proven record of exceptional community service and leadership that has made a positive and lasting impact in Bakersfield. Mayor Harvey Hall and other dignitaries will present awards and resolutions to these women who inspire, mentor and empower others to serve our community.

Proceeds from the event will help transition families from poverty and at-risk conditions to self-sufficiency through the mentoring and education programs of Garden Pathways. Participants served include youth and families impacted by gang violence, families in welfare-to-work and child protective services programs, emancipating and emancipated foster youth, pregnant and parenting youth, truant youth, and other at-risk youth.

Mentoring brings hope, renewal and wholeness that change families forever. Attendees will hear how the power of mentoring has transformed lives.

The four honorees have shaped the life of our community and have served as mentors to many.

Susan Handy, Bakersfield Adult School principal

Susan Handy has been a driving force and advocate for adult education both in Kern County and at the state level through the California State Department of Education. Currently principal at the Bakersfield Adult School, which serves more than 28,000 students, Handy has brought continual enrichment and growth to the program. As a result of her commitment to collaboration, Bakersfield Adult School now offers career technical education that will help to fill the critical nursing shortage. Susan epitomizes the core values that she espouses to her staff: integrity, commitment, service and a positive attitude. “I love what I do,” she says. “Teaching the adult student not only affects their lives, but the lives of the children, and their children’s children.” Susan particularly takes pleasure in assisting single parents and displaced homemakers into self-sufficiency through education.

Christy Porter, founder and CEO of the Jasmine Nyree Day Center

Christy Porter has supported a broad spectrum of philanthropic and social advocacy needs across the nation. As founder, owner and CEO of the Jasmine Nyree Day Center, the only private special-needs day center in Kern County, Porter is enabling children with severe disabilities to thrive in a caring and nurturing environment. Following the birth of her second child, Jasmine Nyree, in 1999, Christy encountered heartbreak and challenges of the lack of quality medical, therapeutic, and childcare services for children with autism in Kern County. She resolved to give of her time in advocacy to find solutions. Christy has also co-chaired the annual Joey Porter Boot Camp for the past six years and provides scholarships to underprivileged students at her alma mater, Foothill High School. She has been married for 10 years to her high school sweetheart, Joey Porter, linebacker of the Miami Dolphins.

Susie Small, founder of Small Miracles Foundation

Susie Small has turned the personal loss of her granddaughter to cancer into determination to expand local medical care for children. Small’s efforts have contributed substantially to the expansion of the Bakersfield Memorial Hospital neo-natal intensive care unit and the future pediatric intensive care unit, and to the development of the West Tower. Her resolute vision and “we can” certitude throughout the four-year campaign enabled the West Tower capital campaign and advancement team to raise more than $5 million. “This was the place where my heart began to heal,” Susie said. Through Small Miracles Foundation, Small has provided financial resources for families who have a child with cancer. Her efforts help to provide transportation to doctor’s visits, food, and funding for hotel accommodations and utility bills.

Betty Younger, artist and advocate for the arts

Betty Younger, an internationally recognized artist and lifelong advocate for the arts, has brought art into public places where everyone can experience culture in their daily lives. More than 20 of her sculptures are prominently displayed throughout Kern County.  Younger recently opened an art gallery to promote local artists and just completed a life-size statue of Jesus out of a 1,200-pound steel pipe for the Bakersfield Rescue Mission. Referred to as a “woman of steel” in the arts community, Betty finds junk steel and transforms it into stunning pieces of art with lots of “muscle” and welding equipment. Her community involvement over the years has included the Child Guidance Guild (known as Henrietta Weill today) in the 1960s, the Kern County Behavioral Health Association in the 1970s, and the Arts Council of Kern and the Bakersfield Museum of Art since the 1980s.

Past honorees also will be recognized at the High Tea — Sheryl Barbich, Karen Brown, Izetta Camp, Irma Carson, Esther Chapman, Holly Culhane, Peggy Darling, Joan Dezember, Beckie Diltz, Annie Everly, Chris Frank, Ann Hansen, Beverly Beasley Johnson, Virginia Kirschenman, Pauline Larwood, Judi McCarthy, Billie Jo Medders, Barbara Patrick, Jeanette Richardson Parks, Rebecca Rivera, M.D., Sunny Scofield, Sandra Serrano, Mary K. Shell, Lueether Ward, Connie Wattenbarger and Wendy Wayne.

The public is invited to honor these outstanding women as well as to invest in the lives of at-risk families and youth through mentoring.  Proceeds from the High Tea will enable the expansion of mentoring and education services. Individual tickets are $65; table sponsorships are $650.

For more information about the High Tea or Garden Pathways, contact Executive Director Karen Goh at 633-9133 or visit www.gardenpathways.org.

Biographies of the honorees are available at http://gardenpathways.org/html/hightea.htm.