After two years of virtual luncheons – and last year at half capacity – YWCA Walla Walla joyfully welcomed more than 400 supporters to the Marcus Whitman Hotel Ballroom.

This year’s luncheon took us back to the fundamentals with a focus on being present: “Just be.”

Presence – to live in the present moment and give it our full attention – is challenging in a world where everything around us is designed for distraction.

But it’s what our world needs, people who will show up and hold space for each other.

It’s what you did during our years of uncertainty, a time when folks could have slipped through the cracks. You were present, consistently looking out for some of the most vulnerable members of our community.

Award presentation

The 2023 YWCA Leader of Distinction was a longtime educator who has always been present for others, whether leading a classroom or chatting with a friend. YWCA board president 2016-2017 and close friend Rhonda Olson presented the 2023 award to Mary Lynne Schroeder. (See article.)

Taking a “Mission Moment,” Executive Director Anne-Marie Zell Schwerin stressed how hard it can be to ask for help and expressed admiration for the brave souls who reached out to the YWCA last year. And when they showed up, there are good people, like our luncheon guests, who make sure someone is there for them, someone who will listen.

“With a mission that insists on peace, justice, freedom and dignity,” she said,  we can’t NOT convey to people: You are welcome here, you are safe here, you can be YOU here.”

LiNC Director Andraya Anderson and Advocate Alejandra Lopez shared bright moments from their YWCA work in a 5-minute video followed by a heartfelt giving appeal from YWCA friend and investment advisor Jim McCarthy.

The keynote

Our 2023 keynote speaker and YWCA USA board president, Tina Herrera, acknowledged the wisdom of taking a moment in our chaotic lives to just be, to connect with our life purpose and “unique journey on earth.”

She recommended we all listen more to young women, a population she characterized as true to what they believe, who question “our generation’s way of life and our endless pursuit of the next accomplishment.”

She urged a third wave of the feminist movement, one that values “affordable child care, paid family and medical leave…paid safe leave, expanded child tax credits, and trauma-based support for survivors of gender-based violence.”  Removing obstacles like a lack of childcare make it possible for all women and girls to thrive.

Finally, she called for education to ensure the voices of women and women of color “are represented at the highest levels of government and society.”  More women in positions of power and as decision makers at community, national and institutional levels will lead to “more inclusive policies, laws, and practices that protect and contribute to gender equality at all levels.”

Throughout her presentation she shared photos and experiences from her extraordinary career (which included shuttling her experiments to the Russian Space Station on Atlantis as a NASA engineer) and from her longtime involvement with the YWCA. This afforded opportunities like visiting the New York Stock Exchange for the 2018 launch of the YWCA exchange-traded fund “WOMN” and attending a 2022 groundbreaking to rebuild the YWCA New Orleans destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

In Tina’s long and varied journey with the YWCA, it’s clear that the challenges facing women and girls across generations are central to her life purpose and that she sees YWCA as the organization with the heart and resilience to address these challenges.

Special thanks: Early in the program, Molly Gordon thanked our community partners: one who wants to remain Anonymous,  Banner Bank, Coffey Communications, Providence St. Mary Medical Center, and the YWCA Leadership Circle. She expressed appreciation for other luncheon sponsors, Whitman College, CLA, McDonald Zaring Insurance, Northwest Collision, Tallman’s Pharmacy, and the Eastgate Lions Club.

She also acknowledged our sponsors who provided goods or services: Lane Printing & Design; Walla Walla Union-Bulletin; Marcus Whitman Hotel; and David Lopez, Executive Director of the Center for Humanitarian Engagement at Walla Walla University who stepped in when our longtime volunteer photographer Keith Crain couldn’t make it.

We are grateful to them all.

At the 2023 YWCA Leadership Luncheon, Rhonda Olson, 2016-2017 board president (pictured, right), presented the Leader of Distinction Award. Following is the text of that presentation:

Every year at this luncheon, we honor someone who has exemplified the YWCA mission in their lives, with a focus on reaching out to, lifting up, and celebrating the lives and hopes of women, of children, and of diverse peoples. 

Growing up a Midwest farm girl who changed universities and majors when she was told that women could not be band directors, our 2023 Leader of Distinction became a business major instead and worked as a buyer for a major retailer.  Passing by a school one day, she realized that education was her passion, so she went back to school and became a teacher.  For her, education was the way to build capacity and leadership, starting with young ones in elementary school.

She came to Walla Walla in 1969 and began a career in the public schools.  She taught at Edison and Prospect Point, then moved on to the high school as a counselor and later, the Dean of Students with some other interesting assignments along the way including cheerleading coach, leader of the Wa Hi Exchange program in Yokohama Japan, and advisor to the Associated Student Body.  Her life outside school was also incredibly full.  Though she did not become a band director, it did not stop her from singing in choirs, ringing handbells, or playing the flute.  Her leadership was sought and valued in every church she participated in, whether serving soup to community members looking for a warm meal or leading the church council.  People knew her counsel was wise and that she was smart and thoughtful, a person of quiet strength, no drama, possessed of a delightful and engaging sense of humor.  Said her daughters, “Mom has such a sense of joy being part of a team.  She taught us how to value community service and engagement.  Her wish for us, as was her mom’s for her, is a life of hopeful impact, doing things to help others and making a difference.

Her teacher’s schedule didn’t allow her to participate in a lot of community board work until her retirement, and when we heard she was retiring, the YWCA was ready.  We reached out to her about board service, and this smart woman said “no,” not for a year.  So we marked the calendar and asked her again a year later.  She said yes, and instantly became an engaged board member, later serving as president.  During her tenure she saw the YWCA expand services to Dayton and welcome a new generation of leaders, both staff and board.  She also shared her talents with Children’s Home Society, serving on both the local and the statewide boards of that organization.

I want to close on a personal note.  Our 2023 leader of distinction has that rare ability that is so in line with our luncheon’s theme today.  She has the gift of being present to each person she is with, no matter who they are.  And as her friend, I see it every time I am with her.  She is a “best friend” to many of us in this room, her ability to make each of us feel uniquely valued is a true gift.  Our community is blessed by her deep commitment to hopeful impact and to servant leadership.

Join me in celebrating our dear friend, Mary Lynne Schroeder, YWCA Leader of Distinction for 2023.