The Day Spa Association presented Skip Williams, educator, consultant, author, and Vice President of Resources and Development, Inc. with the 2006 Spa Person of the Year Award during the annual Awards & Charity event "Hearts for A Cure" on Thursday, February 22, 2007 at The Day Spa Expo in Las Vegas. The 2006 votes for this unique award were collected online starting in late August at www.dayspaassociation.com - 840 people cast their votes, with Skip Williams receiving 52.43% of the votes. Skip joins Douglas Preston of Preston, Inc., Linda-Anne Kahn of Beauty Kliniek Aromatherapy Day Spa and Wellness Center, Catherine Atzen of ATZEN®, Cheryl Sott of Aroma Works Software and Peggy Wynne Borgman of Preston Wynne who won this award over the past 5 years.

The Day Spa Association chooses a "Spa Person of the Month" 6 times a year - they are individuals who have made a significant contribution to and have been influential in shaping the day spa industry nationwide as well as in their own community. The "Spa Person of the Year" Award is presented each year during the annual Awards & Charity event at The Day Spa Expo from the pool of current and previous years' Spa Persons of the Month.

This year's candidates were: Michael Beresford, Moor Spa, Inc. o Mary Lynne Blaesser, Marine Agency, Inc. o Michael Carter, Athena Health Club and Day Spa. o Joyce Jamison, American Spa Magazine o Rosemary Weiner, Brass Rose Spa & Salon o Skip Williams, Resources & Development, Inc.

"We are very pleased that the Day Spa Expo was chosen again this year to host this award and in the years to come", comments Shane O'Sheeran, Show Director of the Bentley International Group, organizers of this annual event geared solely towards Day Spa owners and managers. "We are delighted to have this award as part of our conference which is being held during the DSA's Charity event, benefiting SpaCare, Organized Charitable Giving, in collaboration with the Melanoma Research Foundation and Uniquely-U".

Not only are the winners acknowledged by their peers and prominently placed on www.dayspaassociation.com, but they are rewarded with a beautiful engraved Irish Crystal Lamp, imported from Ireland with a commemorative plaque naming the award.

To read more about the candidates go to: www.dayspaassociation.com/professionals/Allied. If you know of anyone that you would like to nominate as a Spa Person of the Month and consequently being entered in this Award Program, please contact Hannelore Leavy at DaySpaAssn@aol.com

The Day Spa Association (DSA) is a professional membership-based trade organization founded in 1991. The focus is to serve as the primary business resource for day spa professionals through educational seminars and workshops, research studies, publications and Internet informational exchanges. Further, DSA advocates members' businesses by enhancing consumer awareness and demand for spa services and products. In addition, to protect consumers, DSA establishes a standard of excellence to assure the continuous elevation of professionalism and quality driven services in the day spa industry.

A note from Skip Williams...

To all my friends within the Spa Industry,

I would like to thank from the bottom of my heart everyone for their encouragement and votes for my recent "Spa Person of the Year" award. The voting got very close at times, and therefore I could not have won without your support, thank you so very much for your belief, your support, and your vote.

As Spa Person of the year, I am dedicating the rest of my life to making a paradigm change within our industry to help create a more professional and more profitable industry. As we move toward this goal, our industry can and will achieve great things.

I want each of you to know what an important part you play in helping hundreds of Spas businesses grasp the reigns of their business and take it out of the dark ages and into the 21st century.

Each of you are important individual performers that together make an unbreakable team that affects change in an industry that holds the very livelihood of tens of thousands of employees. Those employees in turn affect health, wellness, and beauty in the lives of hundreds of thousands of Spa Goers (those of you who frequent spas know what I am talking about).

Never underestimate the contribution that you make to the Spa industry, please know that you are important, know that you are instrumental, and know that you are loved. The lives of Vendors, Owners, Practitioners, and Spa Goers, are affected, and your work creates a ripple effect that permeates this industry.

We can always strive to be better, and what would life be if we did not reach for perfection through continuous improvement. No one is more in need of improvement than yours truly, but let me take this moment to personally thank each and everyone of you for your support and your vote for "Spa Person of the Year" and all that you do for this industry, YOU DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

May your lives be rich, may the sun shine upon you always, and my sincere thanks for the Herculean effort that you put forth each day.

Best Wishes & Healthy Profits … Skip Williams, Resources & Development