The Frederick County Chamber of Commerce is proud to announce the winners of the 2021 SHERO Awards! The SHERO Awards were established to celebrate and shine a light on individuals who are making an impact by triumphing over adversity, demonstrating extraordinary care for others or leading change in our community.
This year’s winners were formally recognized at our final networking event at Holly Hills Country Club on Friday, August 27th.
2021 SHERO Award Recipients
Mary Ford-Naill
SHERO Strength Award
Mary Ford-Naill has been a one-woman tour de force in the Frederick community for more than 30 years. Most recently, she demonstrated incredible strength and resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, working tirelessly to manage the distribution of city businesses’ resources, assistance grants, pop-up dining, legislation, staff, on-line meetings, calls and more. She accomplished all of this despite being a long-time stage-four cancer survivor who underwent 200 cancer infusion treatments every three to four weeks, and as a mother, tireless community-focused
volunteer and professional working full-time for the City of Frederick.
Mary served as president of the 150+ member Rotary Club of Carroll Creek (RCCC), a demanding and high-energy job during her breast cancer battle. In addition to the many causes that RCCC supported, she has assisted with other causes including Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, and was a speaker at the Keys Cancer Awareness Night; GenConnect Toy Drive; The Golden Mile Alliance and Frederick’s Oktoberfest.
The city of Frederick is the second largest city in Maryland, with more than 75,000 residents, 3,700 businesses and 56,000 jobs, yet it has limited resources and staff bandwidth. Thanks to Mary’s dedication, she led the work of relief
programs that provided critical assistance to 145 Frederick businesses, some of which have indicated they would not still be open had it not been for her help. She also organized and participated in more than 100 visits to discover the most pressing needs of the local business community.
She is a tough, strong and beautiful woman whose drive for excellence is unmatched.
Brooke DeSantis
SHERO Strength Award
Brooke’s son, Lochlin DeSantis died from the flu with sepsis at age five on January 20, 2020,
shocking his parents, brothers and extended family. At the time, no one thought the flu could
cause a child’s death nor sepsis, a severe blood infection. Brooke is a nurse who has worked in
the emergency room, and vowed not to let another child or adult die from a preventable, vaccinable
disease, hence the establishment of the Lochlin Foundation.
In just days after Lochlin’s passing, Brooke and her husband, Bill have worked tirelessly to establish partnerships with the Frederick County Health Department, local pharmacies and businesses, to organize clinics in communities of need and give out free vaccines. When the DeSantis family couldn’t get flu shots because their doctor and pharmacies ran out of supplies, they knew there had to be a better way, especially for families that couldn’t afford healthcare.
In April 2020, Brooke met with Brad Young, chair of the school board at the time, to discuss needed sanitation supplies for the classroom. Although Brad couldn’t solve that situation, he introduced her to Aje Hill, founder of I Believe in
Me, and they started pop-up flu shot clinics at the old Fredericktowne Mall.
Brooke reached out tirelessly to find partners and CVS, Safeway and Whitesell’s Pharmacy joined the cause. The clinics have expanded to three per week and now include the County Health Department as a partner.
Brooke’s persistence, research, data gathering and tireless effort have paid off, and Love for Lochlin is now approved to provide on-site clinics at schools for flu season, to help children, parents and staff get vaccinated.
She and her husband, Bill, are committed to ensuring that no other family experiences the grief they had to endure.
Maria Herrera
Heart Award
As Executive Director of the Spanish Speaking Community of Maryland, Maria Herrera has been called the “heart” of Frederick.
Maria was a refugee who came to the United States to escape communism, and whose father expected to die in
front of a firing squad due to political causes. She came to America with her illiterate mother and her sister, and sacrificed her education to help her family. She started by selling tamales on the street at age nine since she was the first one to learn to speak English.
When she came to the USA, she was separated from her grandparents and other family members, whom she missed terribly and never saw again. She is now an avid community servant, providing support to the same challenges that her
organization supports.
A successful businesswoman who leads a team of four, Maria opened the Frederick office in 2017.
She was recognized as a Maryland 2020 Census Champion whose efforts contributed to Frederick County’s success in exceeding its 2020 response rate. In addition to including Census literature in food distribution during COVID-19, she created a video in Spanish for social media. Congressman
Jamie Raskin, Maryland US House of Representatives, recognized her as a local hero due to her work with COVID-19 and the Census.
During the pandemic, the majority of the Spanish speaking community were employed by restaurants, landscaping and cleaning companies, and other businesses who were not eligible for unemployment or other relief. Maria created a
“Wellness Check Program” to determine critical needs for these families, that included weekly calls; creating videos to reduce anxiety, depression and tension; delivering food; working with the school system to minimize gaps in education; helping non-English speaking families get needed financial assistance and relief, immigration issues
and more.
She serves on the City of Frederick’s Disadvantaged Business panel and was tasked by Jan Gardner, County Executive to serve on the Equity and Inclusion Leadership Team. Maria also worked with the Salvation Army and Religious Coalition to ensure every child had a Christmas gift, and organized food drives, worked with homeless shelters and victims of abuse. She freely gives out her cell phone number and takes calls 24/7 to serve the community.
Lady Ravens Flag Football Team
Equality Award
The Lady Ravens Flag Football Team is a group of 12 young women (11-12 years old) who is the only all-female team in a male dominated sport.
Although they had to overcome adversity, gender bias and harassment by other teams, coaches and parents, they also experienced a great deal of support and encouragement from other sectors. The team worked to forward gender equality by entering a previously male dominated sport, through training and participation in male activities. They not only promoted the sport to other girls, they also brought awareness and acceptance of females in the league.
The Lady Ravens rose above adversity by letting their skills on the field speak for them. The young players had to endure comments about their inability to compete at the same level as their male counterparts, take direction from
coaches about where the boys touched them and gender shaming comments from parents. The girls team considered all of the comments and actions, discussed them, kept their heads high and played their best games on the field, finishing the season with a winning record of four to two.
This group of 12 young females has shown that although flag football is usually a male-dominated sport, females can train and compete successfully on the same field and they have leveled the playing field for all that follow.
With the notoriety gained by the Lady Ravens, there are now more girls in the sport today than any other time in its
history.
Frederick Chamber Insights is a news outlet of the Frederick County Chamber of Commerce. For more information about membership, programs and initiatives, please visit our website.