A Night Where Your Presence Changed a Life

Inside the Wings to Freedom Foundation's first gala

There's a moment near the start of every event like this when you find yourself wondering if guest's and honoree's will actually attend.

On July 31, 2026 at , the Wings to Freedom Foundation held an incredible night to celebrate survivors, honor courage, and raise our voices for a mission that changes lives every day. Nineteen tables. More than 175 guests. A ballroom filled with nurses, attorneys, professors, elected officials, consular staff, advocates, families — and survivors, seated not as case studies but as guests of honor.

The tables had names

Anyone who studied the seating chart noticed it before they noticed anything else. The tables weren't just numbered. They were named.

Hope. Resilience. Strength. Courage. Healing. Freedom.

That wasn't decoration. It's the arc of the work itself, laid out across a floor plan — the path a survivor walks, one hard step at a time. Every guest sat down at a word that means something to someone rebuilding a life, and by the end of the night, most of them understood why.

Why we were in that room

Since 2023, Wings to Freedom has worked to empower survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual assault across South Florida and beyond.

The scale of what we're up against is not abstract. Nearly 20 people are abused by an intimate partner every minute in this country. About 1 in 4 women will experience severe physical violence by a partner in her lifetime. During a single month of COVID-19 lockdowns, calls to the National Domestic Violence Hotline rose 60 percent.

These aren't distant statistics. They are neighbors, coworkers, and — as more than one person in that ballroom could tell you — the people sitting beside us.

Our founder and executive director, Dr. Martha Wydra, is one of them. A Doctor of Nursing Practice and board-certified acute care nurse practitioner, she is also a survivor. Her doctoral research at Nova Southeastern University asked a plain, urgent question: if you train emergency room nurses to properly screen for intimate partner violence, does it change outcomes?

It does. Many victims never disclose abuse in an ER — out of fear, shame, or because the person who hurt them is standing in the room. Trained nurses find them sooner. That single finding is the spine of everything this foundation does.

As Dr. Wydra puts it: "I am not merely a survivor; I am a warrior."

The people we honored

The evening was guided by our Mistress of Ceremonies, Dr. Griselle Marino — a multi-Emmy Award-winning journalist with more than three decades of public service, and Director of the Hispanic Affairs Advisory Board at the Miami-Dade County Office of Community Advocacy.

Our 2026 honorees have shown up in the moments that matter most: in emergency rooms and courtrooms, in jails and support groups, in policy rooms and on the front lines of prevention.

• Community Impact Leadership Award — Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, Miami-Dade County's first woman mayor, who spent 40 years as an attorney, social worker, and advocate before taking office.

• The Legacy of Service Award — Commissioner Maxwell B. Chambers of Miramar, who built the largest pandemic food distribution site in South Florida and created emergency assistance programs for families in crisis.

• Transformational Leadership Award — Director Sherea Green, who leads Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation and 28 years of correctional experience toward rehabilitation and dignity.

• Vanguard of Justice Award — Cristobal Padron, family law attorney and Wings to Freedom board member, 15 years spent standing beside families in their worst moments.

• Innovation & Victim Advocacy — Ivon Mesa, who founded the Coordinated Victims Assistance Center and chairs the Miami-Dade Human Trafficking Coalition.

• The Legacy Impact Award — Dr. Marie Etienne, the first woman of color and person of Haitian descent to serve as President of the Florida Nurses Association.

• The Vanguard Award for Advocacy & Emotional Intelligence — Dr. Rachel Tourgeman, whose violence-prevention curricula for law enforcement earned recognition from President Bill Clinton.

  
  

The reason none of this is theoretical

The hardest moment of the evening belonged to Marly Metayer.

Her daughter, Nancy Metayer Bowen, made history in 2020 as the first Black woman and first Haitian American elected to the Coral Springs City Commission. She was re-elected, served as vice mayor, and was preparing a run for Congress.

She was 38 when her life was taken by domestic violence.

Her mother stood in that room not only in grief but in purpose — carrying her daughter's story so that fewer mothers have to bury a daughter whose future was just beginning. We carry Nancy's legacy forward, and we say her name.

And then, joy

Because this work cannot only be heavy, the night also belonged to music.

Venezuelan-American vocalist Edward Mena, honored at the White House as an "Exemplary Venezuelan," performed alongside singer-songwriter Shari Beckford, whose "I Will Not Break" needs no explanation in a room like this one. And the dancers of Carnaval de Barranquilla, led by Directoras Silvia Otero and Chachy Visbal, closed the distance between mourning and celebration in the way only color and rhythm can.

Resilience and joy, in the same evening. That's the point.

Where the money goes

Funds raised will support survivors through legal, medical, and financial assistance, and programming that builds awareness across South Florida.

Concretely, that includes Healing Behind Bars, our partnership with the county correctional system — spearheaded by Ivon Mesa, with the support of Director Sherea Green and the sponsorship of Mayor Levine Cava — which brings healing and reentry support to incarcerated women, a high percentage of whom are themselves survivors of severe trauma.

It also includes housing. Through our partnership with Curbvest, we're building a bridge from crisis to home, so a survivor ready to start again has somewhere to start from.

Every dollar becomes a safe bed, a counseling session, a second chance at a future free from fear.

Thank you

To our sponsors, our board, our volunteers, our honorees, our performers, and every single person who bought a seat: thank you.

You gave a young foundation something it cannot buy — proof that this community will show up.

The truth is, no one should ever be in this situation in the first place. Our mission isn't just to walk beside survivors on that road. It's to build a future where no one has to walk it at all.

We can stay on the floor and cry, or we can stand up and fight.

We'll see you next year.

Wings to Freedom Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit empowering survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual assault through advocacy, education, and community partnerships.