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Au Pair of the Year Awards coming in March 2010!Yes, it is close to that time again! Au Pair of the Year Award!
The International Au Pair Association is an international community and trade association for experienced and qualified au pair organizations that specialize in providing culture exchange services (i.e., au pair agencies). IAPA is located in Copenhagen, Denmark and au pairs from around the world are eligible for the award. The “IAPA Au Pair of the Year” prize is one way of giving au pairs the recognition and credit they deserve and enhances the public’s awareness of this valuable childcare alternative. IAPA Members ask host families, that have received an au pair through an IAPA member, to nominate outstanding individuals who, if selected, can act as a spokesperson for au pairs around the globe. The host family is asked to complete a Nomination Form explaining in a written essay why their au pair should be considered for the IAPA Au Pair of the Year Award. The winning au pair is invited to Denmark and then on to receive the award ceremony which takes place every year during the IAPA Annual Conference and Work Experience Travel Market (all expenses paid). This year, it will take place in Miami, Florida. IAPA presented its first Au Pair of the Year Award in Cannes, France (2004) and the most recent award was presented in Vienna, Austria in March, 2009. This year, InterExchange Au Pair USA has selected two winners for their annual “Au Pair of the Year” contest. Mayumi Yano of Japan and João Eduardo Girona of Brazil will share the 2010 Au Pair of the Year title. Wow, they must be really great au pairs to result in a tie! What about your au pair? Would you nominate them? If so, why? Let's hear from our readers! When signing in, please tell us where your au pair is from, why you think she is deserving of an award and what agency you are from. This will be fun! To read the list of Award Winners, please click here at IAPA website: http://www.iapa.org/Docs/02_organisation/Au_Pair_of_the_year.php4
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Who is responsible for giving this award? Is it international or held here in America? These are only some of the questions we get from host parents around this time of year - in response to the letters they receive from their agency, encouraging them to perhaps nominate their au pair for this distinguished prize.
Andrea from Colombia is our Au Pair of the Year!!
We would nominate our au pair from Columbia, Andrea, because of her loyalty and kindness to our family. But, she does not want us to do this. She speaks softy, smiles kindly at us (for our silliness) and says "no, no, please." We couldn't go against her wishes. She has not saved one of our childrens' lives or cared for a special needs child or taught a deaf and mute child to communicate better - it is nothing like that. However, we feel she is an extraordinary person who gives of herself in a selfless and loving way. I have never seen or experienced anything like it in my life, except perhaps I could compare this loving kindness to my grandmother's attention to me and my sisters when we were small.
Andrea never raises her voice, she speaks in a kind, loving way, she looks into the childrens' eyes and speaks so softy to them, they melt. They do whatever she tells them. They adore her. She makes breakfast every morning (we tell her "no" but she insists). Full breakfast, coffee for us, and then cleans it up after she drives the kids to school. Our home is always neat and tidy when we walk in the door, exhausted from the long commute. She always starts our dinner for us. The children are washed, fed and in their PJs. Andrea has read them at least 4-5 books (she never turns the tv on) since dinner. They are speaking Spanish and they paint and draw nature constantly (with Andrea, who is interested in art and nature).
Andrea invites children in the neighborhood in for cookies and milk after school. She reads to all of them and knows all of them by name. She will call their parents to speak to them about any problems the children may have but she is never intrusive, the way she does it. She cares and loves all people around her. The children all love her - from little toddlers to teenagers! (I am not kidding).
She is kind, thoughtful, intelligent and makes us all better people - we all feel we must meet her loving expectations, to not do so would be an insult to ourselves. I cannot express what I really mean - it is a feeling, that she is, wise beyond her years, saintly in a way (I don't want to embarrass her) but there is a something special and unique gift inside of her that spreads through people who meet her, like a warm, comforting ray of sunshine. I think there are only a few people out there in the world like this, I only met one (her) but you know what I mean? Special and gifted, from God perhaps, but there is something unique and worldy about her.
She has warm large brown eyes, flowing black hair down her back and she is taller than most Colombians and slender, not beautiful in the classic sense, but she is because there is a glow about her. But not sexy, never like that. Natural prettiness that she is totally unaware of. She dresses in simple clothes from her country and is always professional and trustworthy.
She may not win the Au Pair of the Year Award at IAPA, but in our hearts, she is the Au Pair of the Year!
We read your article here on Colombian au pairs, took a chance and found Andrea! We are with Au Pair Care Agency (this is not our au pair's real name, we don't want to embarass her or have the agency call us, or anything like that).