State Farm Honors Wis. Resident at Women Awards Presentation

Bloomington, Ill.-based State Farm Insurance recently honored exceptional women across the country during the Embrace Life Awards luncheon held in New York City.

Each year the Awards recognize five remarkable women who have inspired others by doing extraordinary things despite the deaths of their husbands. This program empowers women by offering ways to protect their dreams and preserve their legacies with proper financial planning.

This year’s honorees were selected from more than 200 essay nominations by an independent judging panel. Each receives $10,000 and a trip for two to New York City to attend the luncheon.

Cleveland, Wis. resident Debra Kiser’s husband, Chuck, was killed in Iraq while on duty as an Army staff sergeant with the 330th Military Police Detachment. Kiser lost her own mother when she was eight years old. Her children were ages 10 and 13 at the time of Chuck’s death, so she understood the importance of grief counseling and peer programs for kids. Kiser turned to Rainbows’ Silver Linings, a program that provided the emotional assistance for her children that she lacked during the loss of her mother. She saw how the program benefited her kids and began actively campaigning to educate the military about the need for more emotional counseling for military families.

Kiser went on to help create a support group for Wisconsin’s Gold Star Families called Being There — Reaching Out, where she is the board director, fundraising chair and member of the children’s activity
committee.

In addition to serving Being There — Reaching Out, Kiser also is a
grief volunteer for the Widow’s Support Program in her community.

Additional award winners were: Elaine Cook, Spring Hill, Tenn.; Irma Gonzalez Galvan, Houston; Julie Jones, Fort Worth, Texas; and, Alissa Torres, New York.

For more information about the State Farm Embrace Life Awards program and this year’s honorees, visit http://www.sfembracelifeawards.com or theNews and Events Center at http://www.statefarm.com.

Source: State Farm