Ray receives Zonta Club's top award

Like many, Patricia Ray doesn't do things with the end goal of receiving an award.

"You put your foot one foot in front of the other every day. You do your thing. This is what you do," Ray said after the Zonta Club's 12th annual Women of Achievement Awards ceremony on Nov. 18. "You don't expect recognition for it; you just want to try and do good things because it makes you feel good."

Ray was recognized with Zonta's 2016 Women of Achievement Award, the top honor at the sold-out event honoring local, professional women in the community and is the group's biggest fundraiser.

Ray, who worked as a nurse before moving to Cape Girardeau in 1997, is a lawyer at the Limbaugh firm, member of Saint Francis Medical Center's board of directors and executive committee, trustee to the Cape Girardeau Public Health Center, participates in the Read to Succeed program at Franklin Elementary, taught business law at Southeast Missouri State University and has spent time as a member of the Zonta Club of Cape Girardeau and a board member of the local Court Appointed Special Advocates group.

The Lifetime Achievement award, usually given to a single person, was bestowed upon three people for the first time ever.

Mary Greaser, Naomi Newman and Mary Scherer, the three founding members of the Zonta Club of Cape Girardeau, were the recipients of that award.

"They are phenomenal. They've been in the club for 40 years and still probably have more service hours than anybody in the club," said Callie Welker, co-chairwoman of the Women of Achievement Awards. "They're very active still, and having people like that to look up to is really cool."

The Celebration Award, which does not always go to a local woman, was given to Megan Boudreaux, the founder of Respire Haiti.

Congratulations to each of these women on their well-deserved awards.

The other nominees for the Women of Achievement Award were: Dr. Kate Barnette of the Center for Orthodontics; Charlotte Craig, former director of the Cape Girardeau County Public Health Center and longtime volunteer with the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri; Elizabeth Gray of Realty One Associates; Sandy Hastings, owner of Servpro of Cape Girardeau and Scott Counties; Brenda Newbern, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Convention and Visitors Bureau; Michelle Outman, president of h.o.w.? Ministry; and Kathy Smith, owner of Extra Hands Inc.