Jolene Toder has captured a Business Leadership and Entrepreneur Award through the 2026 YWCA Westman Women of Distinction Awards. Now living at Oak Lake Beach, Toder began her business, JT Interiors, when she was an Elkhorn resident.

    Toder said she was initially surprised at her nomination by Val Caldwell, who remarked, “It was a true privilege to nominate you and share with the community what a remarkable woman you are. Not just your success as an entrepreneur, but your generous spirit, dedication to your family, and steadfast commitment to making the world a better and brighter place.”

    She said, “I was extremely shocked to even be nominated, let alone to win it.”

    Preferring to stay in the background, when she first approached about the nomination Jolene put the brakes on.  

    But at her sons’ urging, Toder accepted the nomination. She was asked to provide an overview of her business, her role in the community, her team, and her efforts to support and mentor women.

    At the awards evening on April 15, she was surrounded by her family and friends. As her sons, seated further down the row, were chatting back and forth, they sent her a text. She calls, “It said something like, ‘A lifetime of hard work, you so deserve this.’ That’s when I started to cry. That means more when your sons say it.”

    Recognizing other nominees in her category as “amazing women,” Jolene had no formal response prepared, but in response to the award and to the hundreds of congratulations on Facebook she said, “I will begin by saying what an honour it was to be nominated alongside the other four women in this category….