CALIFORNIA, Md. – The origins of Women’s History Month did not begin until 1982 when Congress passed a public law requesting that the President proclaim the week of March 7th, 1982 as Women’s History Week. In 1988, the celebration officially extended into the entire month of March each year. Since 1995, presidents have made a series of proclamations in celebration of the copious amount of contributions that women have made to our country throughout history in a variety of fields. To honor this sentiment, we at theBayNet.com have decided to celebrate three female leaders in our community to properly mark the occasion.
Back in 2019, retired teacher Deborah Faller’s interest was sparked in opening a chapter for the national nonprofit organization Sleep in Heavenly Peace in St. Mary’s County while watching Good Morning America in her living room one morning. The episode had a segment about the organization’s work. She immediately felt called to begin working with them to make sure that no child ever goes without a bed in our community. As Chapter President, she oversees the 836 unique volunteers that help to build beds from frame to mattress to sheets to even bedtime hygiene items so that each child who receives a bed can feel special during their bedtime routine.
To date, Faller has overseen the completion of 612 beds for local children and over 4,000 volunteer hours. Her chapter boasts 348 individuals who have donated either financially or with materials and 93 corporate/nonprofit donors. It is estimated that 2-3% of all children in the U.S. do not have a bed to sleep in each night. Faller has made it her life mission to rectify this within our community and is making excellent progress, given that the chapter has already exceeded their initial goal.
For her invaluable contribution to our community, she was awarded the Woman of the Year award in 2021 by St. Mary’s County Commission for Women. Her piece of wisdom that she shared for future leaders was this – “Always under promise and over deliver. When you’re an open book, and you say you mean and mean what you say, and do what you said you were going to do, people can trust you. Transparency is of the utmost importance.”
For more information on Fuller’s chapter of Sleep in Heavenly Peace, please visit the facebook page here.
Local yogi Fran Hrapsky was often told by others that she wasn’t cut out to be a businesswoman. However, she simply took it as a challenge, instead of letting it derail her dream. In January of this year, her hard-earned dream came to fruition in the form of a yoga studio in La Plata. Her studio currently serves as the only of its kind in the entire town and only one of a few in all of Charles County. The studio currently holds upwards of 36 classes each week, has 15 instructors on staff, and offers additional workshops each weekend. Hrapsky’s studio also offers sessions in an infrared Halo IR that is equipped for medical grade chromotherapy, salt therapy, and other services.
In addition to the paid classes that the studio offers, Hrapsky also ensures that karma yoga or free yoga sessions are offered. It is of the utmost importance to her that everyone have the ability to learn the practice of yoga, regardless of their financial situation. The studio’s social media presence is filled with complimentary advertisements for many local businesses, in order to help her fellow local business owners flourish and her studio regularly contracts with local vendors for events. Uplifting the community around her has always been her ultimate goal in business.
Hrapsky’s business is steadily growing each month and has a slew of satisfied yogis (both old and new) who rave about her work. The sisterhood of women supporting her in this endeavor is what she credits as being a massive help in running her business. She offers this advice for young women who want to own their own business someday – “You can do whatever you want. All you have to do is think about it and then let it go. When the time is right, it will happen. Just believe in yourself and know it will happen. If you want it badly enough, it will happen, but you can never force it.”
For more information on Hrapsky’s studio Zentral Station, please visit their website here.
Natural born entrepreneur Wynne Briscoe first began her journey into business at the age of 7 and has always found a sense of comfort from running her own enterprises. She graduated from Great Mills High School at the age of 17 and immediately joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency where she worked through her degree at the University of Maryland College Park. During her senior year of college in 2001, she began a business consulting firm. To date, she has been an executive management consultant for 21 years and has ran her own firm for 15 years.
In 2016, she began as a business consultant and was later promoted to Regional Director in 2020 for the Maryland Small Business Development Center, Southern Region. The Center team helped save thousands of businesses from having to close their doors during the pandemic. The workload during that time was unprecedented and she is thankful to have made it through that difficult season. She shares, “I have really enjoyed helping business owners shift their mindset in a way that has allowed them to not only survive, but thrive.”
Briscoe has found the industry that she is in to be a predominantly male dominated one. She learned very early on how to adapt to the environment and became comfortable with that from the beginning. She shares, “Being a strong woman in a male dominant industry comes with its own set of challenges. I work to not see them as challenges, but opportunities for success.”
A piece of truth that she often shares with the young women that she mentors is that “Leadership is a direct result of you walking in your divine assignment.” She believes that someone should never aspire to lead but to aspire to serve.
For more information on Briscoe’s organization, please visit their website here.
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it looks like this is proof that you don’t have to be in the military to serve your country.