Newest Unsung Hero is Antoinette Sailor

Antoinette has been quietly volunteering in our community for several years but her latest volunteer endeavor has reached the heart strings of many young girls in our community.

BIO Girls was started two years ago in Devils Lake. (BIO stands for Beautiful Inside and Out.) Antoinette recalls receiving a call from Margie Yanish who asked her to be a Co-Director of BIO Girls. Her first thought was “I don’t think I have any hours left in my day to give.” Antoinette is a woman of prayer so she placed it before God and a few things fell off her plate, so she said YES!

BIO Girls is an organization that offers a preventative mental wellness program with the mission of improving self-esteem among adolescent girls.

Along with Antoinette and Co-Director Margie Yanish, there are also 10 other adult volunteers that serve as mentors to facilitate the program. Each week the participants meet and discuss life-skills, Christian non-denominational devotions, small-group mentoring, and participate in a non-competitive physical activity. At the conclusion of the program, the whole group participates in a 5K, where the only goal is completion.

“My involvement with BIO girls was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!” says Antointette. Each week she gets to see girls that are gaining confidence, talking, laughing and developing healthy friendships with other girls in the program. “Our youth today face many challenges and stressful situations; at BIO girls we discuss ways to handle different situations as well as cope with things they are facing on a daily basis. Plus, we have lots of fun and laughs along the way!”

“It’s amazing to me to see the progress in the girls over the course of the program. It’s so fun when I see the girls in public and they run up to me and give me a hug! We’ve even had girls that have went through the program come back and volunteer! It’s really the kids that make this program successful,” said Sailor.