Awards
Valiant Woman Awards, Young Christian Woman Awards, and Human Rights Award
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CWU of Greater Dayton: Valiant Woman Awards The winners in 2025 are: Judith Philpot and Martha Nicely Shields A Valiant Woman is a woman who has given service to CWU, her church, and her community. She may or may not be an actual leader, but is always someone who leads by example. A Valiant Woman is a woman who lives the Gospel message in her everyday life. A certificate and a lapel pin is given to each of the recipients. |
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Judy Philpot
Judy Philpot is married to Weston Philpot. She has four wonderful children: · Russell Pryor and Toyus Matlock (Blessed by marriage) · Weston Philpot III and Stephanie Drake She has wonderful and loving grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Judy feels greatly blessed to have extended family and many friends. She has taught her children to walk in God’s Way. Judy received her education in higher learning from Sinclair Community College and from Nyack College. She is very active in her church, St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Zion, where The Reverend Doctor Aileen Maddox is the pastor. Judy works with her husband at Adolescent Oasis, a foster care and adoption agency. Judy has been a member of Church Women United in Greater Dayton since 2019, where she served as treasurer until 2025. Judy has great compassion and she has often visited with Hospice members -- listening to their concerns and comforting them with her great love for God, and sharing with them that there won’t be any troubles or pain when we meet our God. Judy feels—as the songwriter sings — “I am just a nobody just trying to tell everybody about somebody who can save anybody.” Her prayer is for God to use her daily in helping others, so that her living will not be in vain. |
Martha Nicely Shields
Martha Nicely Shields grew up in Pennsylvania where she met and married Dale, her husband of 56 years. Together, they lived in upstate New York and Bangkok, Thailand, before settling in Beavercreek where they raised two daughters. Today, those two daughters are married and Martha and Dale have been blessed with three wonderful grandchildren and one great-grandson. Both Martha and Dale were born into active Presbyterian families and they have continued that heritage here in the greater Dayton area. Their elder daughter was baptized in the International Church of Bangkok and the younger daughter in the First Presbyterian Church of Fairborn. Dale is an ordained deacon who served on many committees. Martha is an ordained elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and she spent many years teaching Sunday School and Bible School classes, as well as serving on numerous church committees in those three churches. Most recently, Martha served as CWU Key Woman for Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton. Born with a love of learning, Martha earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in education and completed over 125 post-master's degree semester hours. For over 38 years, she sought to share that love of learning as a teacher for students who ranged from first graders to adults. For thirty-two of those years, she taught middle school students. During that time, she received numerous awards including the Ohio Federation of The Council for Exceptional Children Teacher of the Year Award, Technology Teacher of the Year (Ohio’s Region 4 of nine counties), and the national State Farm Good Neighbor Award. The State Farm award led Martha and several of her students to appear in a full-page State Farm ad that was published in 11 national magazines, such as Reader’s Digest, The Smithsonian, etc. Recognition also included numerous awards from The Muse Machine for her achievements in introducing thousands of middle school students to the performing and visual arts. As a community volunteer, Martha has also demonstrated her commitment to education and effective communication. Seven years ago, Martha took the lead in designing and developing the Church Women United in Greater Dayton (Ohio) website (https://www.cwudaytonoh.org) and has since acted as the webmaster. She has also helped to build or maintain websites for CWU(Ohio), the Beavercreek Women's League, The College Women's Club of Dayton, and her sorority alumnae club in Dayton. As editor or co-editor of the CWU Dayton Newsletter, Mini-Directory, and the Annual Report, she spent countless hours gathering, writing, editing, and organizing text and pictures to share information about the local unit’s structure, schedule, leadership, goals, and achievements. Martha also supports a number of non-profit organizations that improve the lives of our community members, such as 100 Women of Greene County, The Muse Machine, and The Foodbank, Inc. Martha states that it has been a huge honor to work with CWU members in Dayton – serving as a Key Woman for Westminster, as well as CWU Enabling Services Chairperson, Communications Chair, Membership Chair, and Newsletter and Website Editors. She is humbled by the Valiant Woman honor. One of the Bible passages that seems to drive Martha is I Corinthians 12. We need each other and we need to help each other - regardless of what our gifts may be. |
CWU Young Christian Women's Award
There were no nominees for this award in 2025.
There were no nominees for this award in 2025.
CWU of Greater Dayton Human Rights Award
The winner in 2025
will be announced in October 2025.
will be announced in October 2025.
Church Women United is committed to supporting organizations and processes that provide food and other needs for our community members. Having access to healthy food and shelter on a daily basis is a basic human right which Church Women United is proud to honor.