Marilyn Hamilton — co-creator of the landmark Quickie manual wheelchair, national tennis champion, Paralympian and Spinal Cord Injury Hall of Fame member — has been named a winner of the 2006 Minerva Award, presented by California First Lady Maria Shriver.
The award is named after the Roman goddess of wisdom and recognizes women who “have made extraordinary contributions to California in the arts, health and sciences, community activism, business and technology, motherhood, innovation, education and lifetime achievement.” Shriver, married to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, created the Minerva Awards in 2004.
Other 2006 winners were astronaut Dr. Sally Ride (lifetime achievement); victims’ rights advocate and Citizens Against Homicide founder Jane Alexander; and Sandra Orozco, Ramona Delgado and Jennie Hernandez Gin, who founded WEAVE, an emergency shelter for domestic abuse victims.
The awards are presented each year during the California Governor & First Lady’s Conference on Women, held this year in Long Beach, Calif., in September.
In addition to her continued work on behalf of Quickie, Hamilton is co-founder of Discovery Through Design, an organization devoted to creating awareness and raising funds for paralyzed women’s health initiatives and spinal cord research. Discovery Through Design is presenting a fashion fund-raising event, called the Rolling with Style Gala, at Cipriani restaurant in New York City on Feb. 6, 2007.
For more information on the Minerva Awards program, go to www.CaliforniaWomen.org and click on “Discover Minerva.” For more information on Discovery Through Design and the Rolling with Style Gala, go to www.discoverythroughdesign.org.
