Dexter girl to be awarded Girls Rock! honor

    WATERVILLE — Hardy Girls Healthy Women is celebrating Maine girls in its sixth annual Girls Rock! Weekend April 5-6. The weekend includes the fifth annual Girls Rock! Awards: a ceremony which recognizes the accomplishments of five Maine girls.

    Girls Rock! Weekend celebrates girls’ voices in art, music, literature, and society, and the awards honor girls who are using their voices in bold and powerful ways to make Maine a better place for all girls.

    The Entrepreneurship Award winner Derian Chenel Gatewood, 17, is a student at the Tri-County Technical Center in Dexter and is educated through homeschooling as well. In an automobile accident which killed her mother as a toddler, Gatewood suffered a traumatic brain injury and has worked hard to overcome these disadvantages. Her own business, Dragonfly Designs, began as selling jewelry for a fundraiser for Womancare, an organization that provides support to victims of domestic violence. Gatewood has now developed her business further as a part of her homeschooling course work, and has been selling her entire product line at craft fairs since she was 12, donating 10 percent of her annual sales to Womancare.

    “Whether it’s leading by example or organizing the school to campaign for social justice, we want to honor girls who are making Maine a better place for other girls to live here,” said Jackie Dupont, vice president of research and programs for Hardy Girls Healthy Women. “We were in awe by the powerful social changes these girls are doing not only because it will spark other girls to take the lead, but because their actions also break stereotypes about what girls are capable of doing and what they care about.”

    To find out more about the Hardy Girls programs and events, visit www.hghw.org or call 861-8131. Hardy Girls Healthy Women is a non-profit located in Waterville working to ensure all women and girls are independent, safe and equal in their everyday lives.