Long-running show boosts its local focus

Candy O'Terry has been a cohost of "Exceptional Women" for 15 years on "Magic" WMJX-FM (106.7).

For 15 years, "Exceptional Women" cohosts Candy O'Terry and Gay Vernon have intentionally cast a broad net for the women they profile on their program, which airs Sunday mornings (7:30-8 a.m.) on "Magic" WMJX-FM (106.7). Role models and pioneers, teachers, principals, doctors, researchers, and what Vernon calls "quiet community heroes" have all been among their subjects. This year, say the two hosts, that search brought them closer to home.

"In the beginning of [each] show," says Vernon, who is also WMJX's news director, "we say some people make headlines, other people make things happen quietly. This year, we seem to be focused on more of our local exceptional women."

On May 15, the weekly program will host its 11th annual awards luncheon, celebrating seven of those women. The luncheon, a fund-raiser for the American Cancer Society's "Making Strides Against Breast Cancer," will be held at the Westin Copley Place. (For ticket information, go to magic1067.com or call 617-822-6534.)

While the biggest celebrity honoree, Michelle Phillips of the pop group the Mamas & the Papas, is most closely associated with California, the list also includes women with strong Bay State ties. These include state Attorney General Martha Coakley; North Easton's Peg Feodoroff, a cancer survivor and founder of Healing Threads; Sheila Lirio Marcelo, founder of Waltham-based care.com, an online child-care, elder-care, and pet-care resource; international health-care advocate Ophelia Dahl, director of the Boston-based Partners in Health; and Norwell teenager Brittany Bergquist, founder of cellphonesforsoldiers.com.

Honoree Brecken Chinn Swartz, adoptive mother of Zhou Lin, a young Chinese girl who had suffered third-degree burns on her legs and feet, lives in Maryland but is also connected to Massachusetts: Her daughter was treated at Boston's Shriners Hospital for Children.

Swartz's exceptional quality, says Vernon, is a commitment both immediate and total. It has also been matched by her daughter's Chinese family. "This woman just saw this child and a family in distress," says Vernon. Although the relationship hadn't started as an adoption, Zhou Lin's birth family saw a chance to give one of their children a better life. "Every week, the child speaks to her birth family back in China," says Vernon. "The whole thing is just an amazing leap of faith on all parts."

Such stories, says O'Terry, are what have kept the show going.

"Fifteen years later," says O'Terry, "the story is still the same. There are so many exceptional women still out there."

The one constant, she says, is that the women they profile have overcome the odds. "Most of these women will tell you adversity is a gift," she says. "We all get pulled through life sometimes kicking and screaming; the difference is what you do with it."

Coakley credits her groundbreaking role to support "from fellow women lawyers and colleagues."

"All women struggle with trying to find their place and also . . . the balance between work and family and friends," she says. "I see that as a strength. Relationships are important to us."