Jill Summerhayes is a business leader and arts activist who founded the Cambridge Writers Collective and spearheaded the establishment of the Cambridge Centre for the Arts.
To be recognized for spending 35 years volunteering in a community I love, for something I feel so passionately about was indeed an unexpected honour and I sincerely thank all those involved in this wonderful, celebratory occasion.
Jill Summerhayes
Lifetime Achievement Award – 2012
A longtime writer, her work has been recognized by the Stephen Leacock Short Story Competition and the Canadian Authors’ Association. She is a founding member of the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts and the Waterloo Arts Foundation. As chair of the Cambridge Community Orchestra Board, she helped secure funding and leadership and fostered its growth into the Cambridge Symphony Orchestra. She is a strong advocate for the Orchestra’s “pay as you can” policy – allowing everyone to hear live classical music.
Jill received the Bernice Adams Special Trustee Award, the YWCA Women of Distinction Award, the Canada 125 Medal, the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal.
She was inducted into the Cambridge Hall of Fame in 2006.
Editors Note: Jill Summerhayes was awarded the Arts Awards Lifetime Achievement Award at our 2012 Awards Gala.