Female leaders honored; Leading Ladies Luncheon celebrates 7 top women
Published 12:58 pm Monday, June 26, 2017
- The honorees for the Leading Ladies Luncheon on Saturday afternoon at the West Side Development Center: Shannon Freeman, Carolyn Thibodeaux, Zena Stephens and Ranoda McClain. Not pictured are Geraldine Walker, Rose Day and Sylvia Hebert David Ball/The News
These women sparkle in the community like diamonds.
Seven women were honored for going above and beyond helping their community at the Leading Ladies Luncheon on Saturday afternoon at the West Side Development Center. Honorees are: Geraldine Walker, Rose Day, Sheriff Zena Stephens, Ranoda McClain, Carolyn Thibodeaux, Sylvia Hebert and Shannon Freeman.
Walker has adopted many children in the community and she has raised them as her own.
Day is a volunteer at St. Mary’s Christus Hospital and Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church.
McClain works at the Port Arthur Economic Development Corporation and she won an award for economic development branding.
Stephens is the first African-American woman elected to be a county sheriff in Texas.
Thibodeaux is the children’s librarian at the Port Arthur Public Library and she’s involved in several programs.
Hebert volunteers at her church.
Freeman is CEO of REACH- Redirecting, Educating, Aligning, Community Health. She is also sponsoring a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math camp this summer for middle school students.
Charlotte Moses, executive director of Christian Faith Women of Virtue, Inc. and a Port Arthur City Councilwoman, said these women impact the community through their lives and work.
These honorees are in anticipation of the 10th annual Diamond Conference 2017 from August 9-11 at the Bob Bowers Port Arthur Civic Center.
Moses said the Diamond Conference is about empowering women. Her first conference was at the Metamorphisis Conference in Houston in 2006. She said she got a vision do a conference in Port Arthur to empower women to go to the next level.
She said women can do the same thing as the speakers on the stage at the conferences because they all have the same time and opportunity.
The first Diamond Conference was held in Port Arthur in 2008 with little to no resources to use.
Moses said it was pulled off, though, with “a little bit of faith.”
The conference also seeks out at least 20 women in the community to help and to refine them through scholarships and a day of pampering before coming to the Diamond Conference.
“These ladies (the honorees) made significant stride in their communities. These women never think about themselves,” she said.
