2024 Remarkable Woman reflects on her experience one year later

Jack thanks as we begin to once again recognize the remarkable women in our area we start by revisiting last year's Honore 22 news reporter CLA Overton sat down with Cheryl presy to see how her life has changed over the last year Cheryl preki is the founder of the Women's Center for Healing located in East Long Meadow and she said she still can't find the words for what this award means to her I will say that it was an honor and I'm still I think processing and taking it in um and and it's it's been amazing and it's not just the year you'll always be remembered as a remarkable woman yeah that's that's really cool Cheryl preki entered the field of psychology and therapy because of her own experiences with mental health I was realizing the holes in the system and the places where uh people were falling through the cracks and I thought we can do better and now she is leading a team helping hundreds of women was recognized as a 20 24 remarkable woman and is rapidly expanding her Center we have added uh another clinician to our team we now have a holistic psychiatric nurse practitioner in addition to Wellness services like raiki and Trauma informed massage not just mental health but whole body holistic healing as a way to further recognize their work all remarkable women honores were invited on a trip to Los Angeles the experience was incredible from start to finish I mean from having a private private chauffeur from the airport um to staying at the Lowe's Hollywood Hotel um being greeted there with like you know the purple carpet from a tour of the Warner Bros Studios to being the guest audience on the Jennifer Hudson show to the cocktail reception preki described it as a star studded trip she said she even felt like a celebrity and while that is already a once- in a-lifetime trip she said there was something more powerful she gained from the trip the best part of the event is really connecting with the other women being able to draw inspiration from them or say like this is what I'm doing and having them share ideas and being being cheerleaders and knowing that we still have each other to lean on is amazing preki said she is still thriving off of the energy from being honored but is ready to welcome this year's recipient we know the work we do has impact but we don't always know the extent of that and so you're here for a reason and you deserve this peki also said to dream big and that if your dreams scare you that is good because it means you're doing something meaningful working for you Claire Overton 22 News