‘Uniting each other’: Women in leadership honored for building up Washington County

SANTA CLARA — Yolanda Farr came to Southern Utah as an immigrant more than a decade ago after growing up in a Brazil-forest home with no electricity and a battery-powered, one-channel radio. In just a year, Farr has built a business from the ground up from her garage to a Washington City storefront. 

Southern Utah Bargain Bin owner Yolanda Farr, right, receives her Element Award from her husband Daniel at the 3rd Annual Element Awards, Santa Clara, Utah, March 29, 2023 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

On Wednesday, she was one of three women honored by the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce as part of this year’s third annual Element Awards in a ceremony at Santa Clara Town Hall.

As a bonus, Farr was handed the award from below the pedestal by the person she called her soulmate: Husband Daniel Farr who introduced her as a person whose biggest excitement in opening up her store was that she was “going to help people.” 

“That was the best part, you know,” Farr, the owner of the Southern Utah Bargain Bin store, said about her husband introducing her. “I was so anxious about everything but then I forgot about that when he was talking, that was the highlight.”

According to the chamber, the Element Awards, in their third year, honor women in Washington County for entrepreneurship and for contributing to the community.

“By honoring them, I hope we can continue to break down barriers,” chamber President Shawn Christensen said.  

St. George Housing and Economic Development Director Shirlayne Quayle, serving as the keynote speaker, said Utah gets an unfair reputation nationwide for women empowerment, and added the building blocks are there to lift female entrepreneurs in Washington County and statewide. And those building blocks are men.

“I hear people say Utah is the worst state for women. There are gaps in leadership but what we do have is men who believe in supporting and raising up the women around them,” Quayle said. “There are great foundational aspects of our culture here. The ripple effects will play out in wage equity and family policies.”

Quayle drew her loudest applause among the nearly 200 local business and political leaders in the room when she mentioned the need to take advantage of diversity. 

“In Southern Utah, we’ve been defined by white women and our community is now so much more diverse,” she said.

Those receiving awards included:

  • Farr, owner of Southern Utah Bargain Bin: After learning last year about a warehouse two hours away in Las Vegas that just auctioned away returned items and overstock from retailers like Target and Amazon, the local resident who grew up in Brazil started a business in her garage. Within a year, that garage-based business has built up to become a storefront retailer in Washington City. 
  • Camden Caifa, clinical program director for Southwest Forensic Healthcare: Helps lead education for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner teams statewide that provides medical care and evidence collection for victims of sexual assault on behalf of the Utah Coalition Against Sexual Assault. Directs nurse-owned company that offers forensic nursing exams to survivors of sexual assault.
  • Nicholle Felshaw, Washington County administrator: Took a path from working at a publisher on the east coast to the city offices of St. George to, now, the administrator for Washington County. Her biggest jobs have included managing the construction of numerous new facility projects in the last year throughout the county including the new administration building and parking garage in downtown St. George and the Washington County Receiving Center in Hurricane.  

Farr says despite the quick progression of her store from a garage, she still doesn’t know the secret to success. She said it just happened.  

Washington County Administrator Nicholle Felshaw shares a few laughs at the third Annual Element Awards, Santa Clara, Utah, March 29, 2023 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

“The garage was small, and we live in a cul-de-sac, so we got too busy,” Farr said. “So we decided to get a location and it’s now right behind the Sonic Drive-in restaurant. It’s small, but it’s been growing so fast.”

Speaking of fast, Washington County Commissioner Gil Almquist said it didn’t take long for him to determine who to lobby for an award with the St. George Chamber. 

“I heard the Element Awards were coming up and I said I worked with a winner,” Almquist said. 

That winner was Felshaw, who Almquist said has saved local taxpayers about $100,000 in a time of inflation where most construction material costs seemed to skyrocket.

Felshaw said she was just doing her job. 

“You know, I wake up every day and I just love what I do, and I go to work and I try to just strive to do the best that I can do,” Felshaw said. “When I got nominated for the award, I thought, ‘Why me?’ Like, I’m just a person that just goes and works hard. I’m trying to be humble enough to just say thank you.”

While the chamber touted Farr and Felshaw’s efforts to build, Caifa was honored for her efforts to build evidence against those who assault and rape and help those victimized by those crimes. 

But Caifa said people need to take the responsibility, shame and guilt of sexual assault away from the victims and direct that toward the attackers. That is why she doesn’t wear the usual “No means no” button on her lapel, but one that says “Yes means yes.” 

Trophies for the 3rd Annual Element Awards, Santa Clara, Utah, March 29, 2023 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

“We’ve all been taught no means no when it comes to sexual consent. And we really need to get away from that,” Caifa said. “It makes the victim be the one responsible for whether they’re assaulted or not when we need to put the blame on the perpetrator.”

Caifa said it has taken years to build up her nonprofit network of nurses who help with assault victims and build the case against their attackers. But at an award ceremony with the theme of “women united in excellence,” she said ultimately women’s empowerment will be about sticking together.

“We need to be uniting each other as women and empowering each other to move forward in our leadership and in our services to the county because we can’t do this without each other.”

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2023, all rights reserved.

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