Day for Women features Brynn Myers, Zoe Grant, Tresa McNeal, Paula Kay Hubbard and Christine Parks

By BRANDY CRUZ | Photos by SKEEBO

Tex Appeal and the Temple Daily Telegram are celebrating 20 years of Day for Women on Jan. 27, with five panelists who will be speaking from a variety of vantage points. These individuals come from various fields and backgrounds, but all share a common commitment to bettering the community in which they live, work and play.

Over the last two decades, Day for Women has helped inspire and empower women from all walks of life. Only by working together, fruits of individuals’ labor start blooming. Brynn Myers, Temple city manager, explained that each person’s contribution is like a piece of a puzzle.
“Instead of looking at one piece, it all comes together to form the big picture for what you want for your community,” Myers said.

Piecing together the puzzle pieces of the five panelists together creates a bigger picture for what they envision what Central Texas would look like in an ideal world. It’s a community of togetherness — one where the experience gaps in education doesn’t exist, one where individuals and organizations are cohesive, one where there’s a variety of career opportunities, and one where the community never loses its small-town feel.

“One thing I love about the city (Temple) is that we’re a growing community with lots of amenities, but we still have a small-town feel in terms of both environment and neighborliness,” Myers said.

That small-town feel is also why Tresa McNeal fell in love with the area. From students to working families, from military families to retirees — Central Texas has a wide variety of people and those are just one of the reasons she decided to make Bell County her home.

“It started out as a professional home, educationally and professionally, but is has become our family’s home and we have grown to love how Central Texas operates,” she said.

One of the reasons she fell in the love with the area is by watching the collaborative efforts during the pandemic in 2020. As the interim chair for the Department of Medicine at Baylor Scott & White Health — Temple as COVID hit the region, Myers was in a unique position to help coordinate teams that helped impact the community in a positive way.

Paula Kay Hubbard, chief of human resources for the McLane Company, said being in Central Texas during the pandemic was inspiring because it showed how everyone could come together as one.

“It was amazing to see. It really is a community of people who care about each other, which you don’t see everywhere,” she added. “There’s a level of connectedness and a willingness to help and support that is really rare.”

Focusing on that idealistic world where everyone works together, the overall picture of what Central Texas could one day look like grows clearer as diversity becomes a focus, but maybe not in a way one would imagine.

“When I talk about diversity, I’m not just talking about race and gender, I’m talking about the skill set,” Hubbard said.

She said that as more businesses flood into Central Texas, a broader range of careers would be beneficial to the community.

Also speaking from a unique vantage point about diversity, Christine Parks, chief of communications and community relations with Temple Independent School District, said they don’t really ever see a racial or ethnic divide. The real issue is with experience.

“I think, for me, an ideal world would be to eliminate the experience gap,” Parks said. “So much of what we see in education, it’s not about race or ethnicity as it is about an experience gap.”

Parks said the school district is inspired everyday by their students, who often take the lead by filling a need in the community, something a lot of people — even adults — do not.

“So many people see issues, they talk about issues, but rarely do people act on helping to resolve issues,” Parks said. “I would encourage people to just get out there and volunteer. It takes more than just one or two people, it’s something that takes a community to change.”

Zoe Grant, Temple City Council for District 2 and founder of Zoe’s Wings Foundation, also encourages volunteerism in the community, believing that partnerships are key to making a big impact by bringing the community together. She said she believes the community is already great, but can always be better with more community involvement, something she looks forward to seeing in the future.

“It’s the birthplace of my parents and just seeing what it used to be and what it is now and knowing that it’s going to get even better for our future and our kids who are growing up,” she said, is exciting to witness.

Myers echoed Grant’s sentiment, saying that, for her, Central Texas is home and she looks forward to its future.

“I was born here, my husband and I met here, and we’re raising a family here,” Myers said. “It’s my home and I love it and I want to make sure I leave it, for the next generation, the best it can be.”

IF YOU GO

On Jan. 27, 2024, Tex Appeal and the Temple Daily Telegram present the 20th annual Day for Women at the Frank Mayborn Civic and Conference Center in Temple. Vendor opportunities are available. Call 254-778-4444 for more information.