‘She is Made for More’: RC Detroit Women offers Women’s Conference to inspire, encourage, and empower women
“God has made you for more; your story will be more creative, imaginative, and better than you could ever imagine.” This message is behind the ‘She is Made for More’ Women’s Conference, an initiative from the heart of a few RC women designed to equip women with the tools and support they need to live a life filled with faith, passion, and purpose. The sold-old event was held on January 27th, 2024, at the Townsend Hotel in Birmingham, Michigan, with nearly 200 women and teens in attendance.
This conference was the fifth year for the ‘She is Made for More’ Event, which began in 2018. It was initiated and chaired by three Regnum Christi members: Ann Marie Neme, Chelsea Gheesling, and Kristi Heft. The conference was an outgrowth of two locally founded organizations: Choices Detroit, an educational non-profit that promotes women’s authentic identity, and Good Girl Comeback, a non-profit designed to empower teens and young women to become independent and virtuous leaders. Choices Detroit, with Ann Marie Neme as co-founder, was started as a non-profit to collaborate with other non-profits to support and encourage women. It empowers women, particularly those experiencing unemployment, homelessness, or critical illness, to be seen, loved, fed, and cared for. In partnership with Good Girl Comeback, founded by Chelsea Gheesling, a former RC Mission Corps missionary, the ‘She is Made for More’ Conference serves to build up and support women in all areas of their lives and to promote the value of womanhood, the ‘feminine genius.’
Under the leadership of these three women, the conference is designed to be an educational and faith-filled event for women and about women. The Archdiocese of Detroit Evangelization Office was briefed on their conference communication and marketing plans and is grateful for this event as a beautiful soft entry point into living a life centered on Christ and informed by faith.
“We want women to feel hopeful, share their journey, and honor their important roles and responsibilities,” says Kristi. “The conference is about women helping women, helping them to see how essential they are and that what they do matters immensely to human flourishing.”
The conference is held at the end of January each year. It includes breakfast and lunch, a keynote speaker, a panel or workshop, and an afterglow event, allowing participants to meet the speaker, mingle with old friends, and make new friends.
This year’s keynote speaker for the event was January Donovan, a former RC Mission Corps missionary and now a life coach and founder of The Woman School. This online school offers courses, coaching, and community to form women in the skills and mindset to design an intentional, integrated, and fulfilling life. In her address and accompanying workshop, January offered pragmatic steps and a goal-oriented pathway towards intentionality in all facets of life, including family, career, and spirituality. Previous keynote speakers include Leah Darrow, a former model who appeared on America’s Next Top Model and is now a mindset coach and entrepreneur; Kelly Nieto, former Miss Michigan and atheist turned Catholic convert and comedian; bestselling author Gina Kell Spehn; and Sarah Swafford, founder of Emotional Virtue Ministries.
As a follow-up to the ‘She is Made For More’ Conference, Kristi, Ann Marie, Chelsea, and other Regnum Christi women members have invited women to attend a Regnum Christi EXPO at a club on Union Lake northwest of Detroit. This event, held in October for the past two years, welcomes women to learn more about deepening their relationship with Christ through the vocation of Regnum Christi. The past EXPOs have included keynote speakers such as Fr. Jason Brooks, LC, who currently serves as a Chaplain within the RC Detroit locality and Healing Ministry, Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi, Marial Corona, from the Chicago community, and non-profit founder Katie Milligan, of 1 Girl Revolution, along with panels of two to four Regnum Christi women involved in diverse apostolates sharing their mission and motivation.
Participants of the ‘She is Made for More’ Conference are invited to attend Regnum Christi events like Regnum Christi Women’s EXPO, retreats, healing retreats led by Fr. Jason Brooks, LC, and other RC programs found online or in-person to extend and deepen their conference experience. The RC Detroit Women’s Section is also partnering with the multi-diocese Michigan Catholic Women’s Conference being held in Lansing, Michigan on October 12, 2024. Centered on the theme “Be Radiant Be Loved,” women will come together to focus on their faith and experience the fellowship of sisterhood in Christ Jesus, by hearing from Catholic speakers, including Fr. Jason Brooks, engaging in praise and worship music, and celebrating Mass with the bishops of the dioceses of Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, Kalamazoo, Gaylord, and Marquette.
For the last four and a half years, Kristi has worked full-time as a Development Officer for the Legionaries of Christ community, the Consecrated Women community, and the RC Mission in Detroit. She also interfaces with the National Development Office and raises funds for the national mission and apostolates. Kristi is a wife and mother of an adult daughter and was an enthusiastic delegate to the North American Territorial Convention held in Chicago last November. She was grateful to witness firsthand those leaders working toward the renewal of Regnum Christi, and for Kristi, the success of the ‘She is Made For More’ Conference is a sign of joy and hope for women seeking to understand their role and value in today’s culture and an indicator of that hope-filled renewal within Regnum Christi.
Since serving one year as an RC Mission Corps missionary, Chelsea has continued a life of mission, including hosting conferences for girls and young women on self-esteem, confidence, and modesty and leading multiple mission trips to Haiti. She is now a wife and mother of three children and runs Bundled, a corporate gifting company she co-founded in 2015 that strives to build an inclusive work environment where women of all backgrounds can thrive. She and this year’s conference keynote, January, served together as RC missionaries in Washington, DC.
Ann Marie is a wife and mother of eight children and serves as the Regnum Christi Women’s Section Director for RC Detroit. She says, “Our mission is to unite women of all generations, promoting the value of being a woman by offering a forum where they can pause and reflect on the direction of their lives. We allow women to integrate and better fulfill their family, personal, and professional aspirations and responsibilities, achieving true fulfillment.”
For more information about the ‘She is Made for More’ Women’s Conference, find them on Facebook or contact choicesdetroit@gmail.com. To find out more about RC Detroit, visit their website at https://www.rcdetroit.org/
