The Greater Cleveland Chamber of Commerce hosted its Fourth Annual Women’s Brunch and Bubbly on Friday, May 22, at Austin Memorial Library, bringing together women from across the Cleveland community to celebrate leadership, perseverance and service.
Roughly three dozen women attended the event, which featured brunch, networking and recognition of two local women selected as this year’s Women of Honor: Maggie Estrada, CEO of Health Center of Southeast Texas, and Wendy McNair, children’s librarian at Austin Memorial Library.
Tasha Childress, chairman of the Chamber’s board of directors, welcomed attendees and spoke about the importance of women encouraging one another.
“This is one of our favorite events. I love celebrating women. It’s a joy to see everyone supporting each other,” Childress said. “Today is about more than just mimosas, a fancy charcuterie and a photo booth. It’s about celebrating women in this room who lead with courage, create with passion and serve our communities with a purpose.”
Childress told attendees that every woman in the room deserved recognition for the impact they make through their careers, businesses, families and community involvement.
“When women support women, incredible, beautiful things happen,” she said. “Ideas grow, confidence rises, doors open, and communities just like ours grow stronger.”
She also thanked event sponsors Good Promotions and Keller Williams for supporting the brunch.
Childress reminded the audience that success is rarely achieved alone and encouraged the women in attendance to continue building one another up.
“When women support women, incredible, beautiful things happen,” she said. “Ideas grow, confidence rises, doors open, and communities just like ours grow stronger.”
She also thanked event sponsors Good Promotions and Keller Williams for helping make the brunch possible.
Estrada shared a heartfelt message about perseverance, personal growth and the women who helped shape her life and career.
She spoke about being terminated from a job nearly 20 years ago and stopping at Austin Memorial Library to print resumes before eventually applying at what was then a very small medical office that would later become Health Center of Southeast Texas.
Estrada started there as a medical assistant before eventually working her way up to CEO. Along the way, she said, she learned valuable lessons from strong women around her, including her mother, former supervisor Dr. Jasmine Sulaiman, family members and coworkers.
While preparing for her speech earlier in the week, Estrada said she began thinking about butterflies and what they represent.
After researching their symbolism, she found butterflies are often associated with transformation, growth and new beginnings. That idea became the foundation of her message.
She compared the things butterflies need to survive — host plants, nectar-rich flowers, water sources and sheltered resting places — to the people and support systems women need in life.
For Estrada, her mother represented the “host plant,” the person who laid the foundation for her life by teaching her values, work ethic and confidence. Other women in her life became the flowers, shelter and support that helped her continue growing through difficult seasons.
“The key takeaways here that I would like for you to take with this idea or thought I had on Wednesday night is that we as women are wonderfully created,” Estrada said. “We need to embrace those natural abilities. We need to be courageous. We need to be confident in ourselves.”
She encouraged the women in attendance not to give up during seasons when life feels uncertain or overwhelming.
“Some of you may be feeling like you’re in a cocoon or just not yet blooming, but you are going to get there,” she said. “Be your own beauty. Our stories are going to be different.”
Estrada closed by encouraging attendees to “fly high” while staying true to their personal values and distributed butterfly-themed magnets as reminders of the message she shared.
McNair, who has worked at Austin Memorial Library for the past decade, delivered a speech that mixed humor, vulnerability and heartfelt gratitude.
“This feels unreal because when I hear Woman of Honor, I picture someone with everything perfectly put together,” McNair said. “And then there’s me, Miss Wendy. I usually have glitter somewhere on my clothes or rainbows and a stack of children’s books.”
McNair spoke candidly about growing up in difficult circumstances and how books became both an escape and a source of hope during her childhood.
“Books were where things made sense again,” she said. “It’s where I could feel safe finally. It’s where I could imagine a different life for myself.”
She credited several women in her life for helping guide and strengthen her along the way, including her grandmother, who became the first female bank manager in Jacinto City after stepping into the workforce to help support her family during a steel industry strike.
McNair also spoke emotionally about her sister Danielle, who took on a parental role for her at a young age, as well as close friends who taught her lessons about resilience, kindness and purpose.
Throughout her speech, McNair returned to the idea of belonging and the role libraries can play in helping children discover confidence and self-worth.
She shared the story of a shy child who once sat quietly at the edge of story time before gradually becoming more engaged over the years. That child eventually became a teen volunteer and later a teacher.
“Sometimes a library is the first place a child feels brave enough to use their voice,” McNair said. “And once they find their voice, they don’t lose it.”
McNair encouraged attendees not to put pressure on themselves to be perfect, but instead to focus on consistently showing kindness and showing up for others.
“You don’t have to be perfect to make an impact,” she said. “You just have to show up with your whole heart.”