Innovia Foundation honors community builders with inaugural awards

Twenty-one community builders were honored Wednesday with the Innovia Foundation's first Weaver Awards in Kootenai County.

The awards, described as "Celebrating the neighbors who weave our community together," celebrate everyday people who foster unity and good will.

“Weaving isn't something only a few special people do. It's something any one of us can do,” Innovia CEO Shelly O’Quinn said before a few hundred people at the Hagadone Event Center.

Angela Comstock of Soroptimist International of Coeur d'Alene was among the honorees, who each received a $2,500 Weaver Award to support their work.

Comstock spoke about Soroptimist's mission of helping women and girls achieve their educational and career goals by removing barriers such as financial hardship and limited access to mentorship.

"The pathway for a woman and a girl to achieve education is a hard one at times," she said.

Comstock became involved with Soroptimist after moving to Boise following college, when another woman invited her to attend a club meeting. Working in the male-dominated engineering field, she found the all-women organization both supportive and empowering.

"You don't do it for the award, right? But it's really nice," she said. "I put a lot of work into my work as a Soroptimist, and it feels pretty good to me."

Heath Gunns, who moved to North Idaho in 2017, founded Spoken Outdoors, a nonprofit that provides guided outdoor experiences, including fly-fishing trips, for veterans and first responders.

"It's kind of my place in the world, right? It's where healing happens," he said. "I'm real blessed to get to share that with folks and build relationships out there."

Recognition is not something he seeks.

"My heart is in the service, not the recognition side of it," Gunns said. "This is almost a guilty pleasure. The reality is our cause doesn't grow if people don't know who we are."

Heidi Benson and Deanna Banks of PB and J Haydeners focus on delivering fresh produce on traditional food bank distribution sites. The effort began after Benson and her son noticed a children's food pantry lacked fresh options. They purchased produce themselves, and the project quickly grew.

Beyond food distribution, the pair work to build lasting relationships so recipients feel comfortable reaching out for help.

"We believe produce should not be a luxury," Benson said. "And unfortunately, for a lot of folks in our community, it is."

Award-winning photographer and author John Noltner delivered the keynote address and hosted pop-up storytelling sessions.

Noltner has spent years traveling the country with exhibits that collect personal stories of courage, grace and resilience. Through portraits and narratives, the project explores themes of building community and bridging divides.

Noltner said he's "fallen in love" with what Innovia does. He looks for "creative solutions" that truly impact communities and bring about closeness. 

"It was my job to find beauty in difficult places," he said. 

The Weaver Awards are part of a national effort by "Weave: The Social Fabric Project," at the Aspen Institute.

Innovia was selected as one of the first Community Hosts for the four-year national initiative and plans to continue identifying and supporting local Weavers in the years ahead.

"Time and again, we've seen that what helps a community thrive is its people and the relationships between them, neighbors who know each other's names and trust one another enough to work through hard things together," O'Quinn said.

The Press plans to highlight the 2026 Weaver Award recipients. 

    Lindsay Patterson of Aktion Club of Kootenai county smiles after receiving a Weaver Award on Wednesday.
  

    John Noltner delivers the keynote address at the inaugural Weaver Awards in Kootenai County on Wednesday.
  

    One of John Noltner portraits in his "A Peace of My Mind" multi-media project is shown on the big screen during the Weaver Awards presentations on Wednesday.
  

    Winners of Weaver Awards gather for a picture on Wednesday at the Hagadone Event Center. Front row from left: Brooke Wood, Lindsay Patterson, Myndi Sizemore, Becky DeMers, Nicole Frens, Angela Comstock and Mary Duff. Second row from left: Adam Schluter, Garry Mickelson, Robin Mickelson, Ali Orjala, Heidi Benson, Deana Banks, Sara Welch, Tess Reasor, David Yadon, Corrie Kaan and Jess Geiger. Back row from left: Amanda Wienclaw, Jessica Gross, Teresa Irish, Joy Shantz and Heath Gunns. Not pictured, Mary Mills and Bill Muck.