WMJX luncheon to toast 'Exceptional Women'
''If you have a desire to do something, follow your dream." That's the advice tendered by Dr. Roseanna H. Means, one of eight ''Exceptional Women" being honored by WMJX-FM (106.7) at the ninth annual Exceptional Women Awards tomorrow.
These awards, an offshoot of the Sunday morning ''Exceptional Women" program, will honor Means, the founder of Women of Means, a nonprofit organization that provides healthcare in Boston's women's shelters, along with newscaster Liz Walker, antislavery activist Gloria White-Hammond, businesswoman Shirley Singleton, advocate for the disabled Laurel Labdon, multiple sclerosis trailblazer Wendy Booker, actress Doris Roberts, and musician Anna Nalick.
Tickets for the noon-2 p.m. luncheon at the Westin Copley Place are $150, with a portion of the proceeds going to the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign. (For more information, call 617-822-6534.)
''This year," says show host Candy O'Terry, ''it dawned on me that quite a few of our honorees are the sort of people who will emphasize how much one person can make an unbelievable difference." Each Sunday from 7:30 to 8 a.m., O'Terry (who created the show in 1993) and co-host Gay Vernon showcase women who have overcome obstacles and who can inspire others with their stories. The awards, launched in 1998, celebrate achievers culled from those weekly interviews.
For Means, the move to make a difference started small. ''I literally started going by myself to Women's Own [shelter] with my stethoscope," she says. While listening to people's lungs, she also started hearing about their lives.
''The stories were so compelling," she says. '' 'My boyfriend's trying to kill me; my relatives have taken my children away.' " Because most of these women were homeless and some had mental illnesses, Means realized that they were often unable to access services and felt overwhelmed by the bureaucracy and paperwork.
What these women needed, she realized, was medical care that came to them. Before long, she was providing just such care. It wasn't easy. She had to learn, for example, how to approach women who may have been abused. ''We cut toenails," she explains. ''It puts us below them, it's less threatening."
She also had to negotiate the bureaucracy for these women. That meant obtaining waivers from the Department of Public Health to provide pregnancy and strep throat testing at shelters, because they aren't officially clinics. It also meant learning how to raise money.
''Six years later, we're a million-dollar agency," she says.
Sixteen other doctors volunteer, and the organization also has five professional nurse case managers. The group provides services at 12 shelters, and also brings in students from Harvard Medical School and the Regis College Division of Health Services.
When asked how to start a similar program, Means offers simple advice. ''Just keep asking people and talking about it," she says. ''Your passion will speak for itself."
