{"id":21384,"date":"2026-11-13T01:57:00","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T01:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=21384"},"modified":"2026-11-13T01:57:00","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T01:57:00","slug":"2026-s-o-a-r-womens-symposium","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/13\/2026-s-o-a-r-womens-symposium\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 S.O.A.R. Women\u2019s Symposium \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_21385\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-21385\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-21385\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Constance-Okoye-Nantwi-and-Capucine-Dickerson-enjoy-the-event-300x208.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Constance-Okoye-Nantwi-and-Capucine-Dickerson-enjoy-the-event-300x208.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Constance-Okoye-Nantwi-and-Capucine-Dickerson-enjoy-the-event-360x250.jpg 360w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Constance-Okoye-Nantwi-and-Capucine-Dickerson-enjoy-the-event.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-21385\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Constance Okoye-Nantwi and Capucine Dickerson enjoy the event<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>By Dawn Scotland<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The Truth Assistant Editor<\/em><\/p>\n<p>One hundred women gathered at Firepit Grill in Holland on Sunday afternoon, October 18, to attend the S.O.A.R. 2026 Women\u2019s Symposium. The sold-out event, presented by Valerie S. Walston, ThD, created a space for women to connect, be inspired, and SOAR higher.<\/p>\n<p>S.O.A.R. \u2014 Surviving Obstacles and Attaining Rewards \u2014 is about moving through life\u2019s challenges with purpose, resilience, faith and the tools needed to reach what\u2019s next. This is the second year for the annual symposium. The theme highlighted the title of Walston\u2019s final book in her S.O.A.R. series: S.O.A.R.ology: The Seven Properties of Perseverance.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s women\u2019s symposium brought women together for an uplifting afternoon centered on leadership, wellness, personal growth, connection and empowerment. Building on the S.O.A.R. focus of helping women overcome obstacles in leadership and wellness while grounded in a spiritual foundation, the experience was designed to encourage women to invest in themselves and one another.<\/p>\n<p>Women in attendance listened to seven powerful stories of perseverance from seven women who spoke seven minutes each. The speakers included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Regina Kynard<\/li>\n<li>Marriah Kornowa<\/li>\n<li>Ashley Benson, PhD<\/li>\n<li>La&#8217;Shardae Scott, DSW<\/li>\n<li>Christina Rodriguez<\/li>\n<li>Richelle Ford-Watkins<\/li>\n<li>Angella Ruley, DNP, CRNA, NP-C<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The symposium included delicious food, vendors, music and giveaways (including a S.O.A.R.ology empowerment box) and honored nine local women for their contributions to the community. Walston also received a proclamation from city council for her work.<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about S.O.A.R. and upcoming events visit Valerie Walton\u2019s social media pages @Valerie Walston.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-21386\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/unnamed-1-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/unnamed-1-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/unnamed-1-1-370x247.jpg 370w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/unnamed-1-1.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-21387\" src=\"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Valerie-Walston-ThD-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Valerie-Walston-ThD-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Valerie-Walston-ThD-370x247.jpg 370w, https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Valerie-Walston-ThD.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Dawn Scotland The Truth Assistant Editor One hundred women gathered at Firepit Grill in Holland on Sunday afternoon, October 18, to attend the S.O.A.R. 2026 Women\u2019s Symposium. The sold-out event, presented by Valerie S. Walston, ThD, created a space for women to connect, be inspired, and SOAR higher. S.O.A.R. \u2014 Surviving Obstacles and Attaining [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[374],"class_list":["post-21384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21384"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21389,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21384\/revisions\/21389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21384"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=21384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}