Linda Gonzales Award Winner 2023

 Opal Besaw

Opal is an impressive young leader whose passion and zeal have impacted many other young people.

She is a longtime friend of and advocate for APRIL and has helped plan the Youth Conference for the past three years. As a past secretary for APRIL’s Youth Steering Committee, Opal set an excellent example for her peers by coming to meetings prepared and by sharing her institutional knowledge with new people (youth and staff members alike!) to help them become acquainted with APRIL and feel more comfortable. Even when her time as secretary was complete, she provided peer support and training to her successor to help set her up for success in the coming year and has continued to attend committee meetings as a dedicated member.

Opal is a graduate of Disability EmpowHer Network's inaugural EmpowHer Camp class. As a part of EmpowHer Camp, Opal designed and completed a community impact project involving emergency preparedness and the Disability Community. Opal decided to curate an emergency preparedness resource guide for people with disabilities in her local community. Her project now serves as a living document that can help Montanans in emergencies.

Opal also serves as a fantastic role model to youth in her own community.   She is a peer advocate at her local CIL, Summit Independent Living where her job is centered around youth engagement. She helps to run the youth group and she's a regular attendee at craft night.

When she's not giving her time to APRIL or Summit, she continues to volunteer with Disability EmpowHer Network where she helps to uplift girls and women with disabilities. She also volunteers with the Montana Office of Public Instruction and has been involved with many other organizations such as the Montana Youth Leadership Forum, the Rural Youth Assembly, and the Montana Special Education Advisory Panel.

Outside of her disability work, Opal is a 19-times published author, a poet, and has a love for all things 90s and 2000s culture. She is described by all who know her as a ray of sunshine who brightens any room she enters.

We at APRIL are proud to grant this year’s Linda Gonzales Award to our friend Opal Besaw.