Life can be tough, especially for women in rural areas.

The GFWC Nevis Area Women’s Club will address these demands to support rural women at this year’s Empowering Women-Resilience conference.

The event will take place on Friday, September 13th, starting at 9 a.m. at the Northern Lights Casino in Walker.

The one-day event is about exploring and identifying ways to build resilience. Participants will learn how to regulate their emotions, break the cycle of negative thoughts, embrace change and live a healthy lifestyle.

The keynote speaker is award-winning US gymnast Maggie Nichols. Nichols reported former gymnastics doctor Larry Nasser for decades of sexual abuse of team members. Although she was not the first to be abused, she was the first athlete to report the abuse.

According to a press release, Nichols was born in Little Canada in 1997 and fell in love with gymnastics at age 3. She always dreamed of representing her country and quickly rose through the ranks of the U.S. national gymnastics team at just 14 years old. She traveled the world helping the U.S. team win international medals and was considered one of the top contenders for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Nichols became known as “Athlete A” during Nasser’s trial. She came forward publicly in 2018 and shared her experiences along with other survivors. A documentary about her story was shown on Netflix in June 2020. Nichols occupies a unique position with regard to the current reorganization and evaluation of U.S. gymnastics, the press release states.

In 2016, Nichols left the world of gymnastics and went to the University of Oklahoma to compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association. “She shaped her legacy by becoming one of the most decorated NCAA gymnasts of all time and was dubbed the ‘Michael Jordan’ of collegiate gymnastics by gymnast Simone Biles,” the press release said.

She is the author of Unstoppable and the recipient of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s prestigious Inspiration Award. She founded the Maggie Nichols Foundation with a mission to support charities that help victims and survivors of all types of abuse heal.

In 2022, the GFWC Nevis Area Women’s Club hosted its first conference, “Empowering Women to Lead.” Three hundred women of all ages attended. Based on the assessments submitted by these participants and new information from the Women’s Foundation of Minnesota on the mental health issues facing rural women, the club decided to hold another conference on resilience – the ability to bounce back after crises.

The press release states: “Four speakers will provide interesting and thought-provoking information for rural women of all ages.”

For more information and to register, visit https://neviswomensclub.wixsite.com/nwclub.

The GFWC Nevis Area Women’s Club is a branch of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, one of the largest philanthropic women’s clubs in the country.

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