Event is timely with March as Women’s History Month
By Teresa Sargeant
Reporter
The Apopka Area Chamber of Commerce celebrated March as Women’s History Month with its annual Women in Leadership luncheon on Wednesday, March 19, at Highland Manor in Apopka.
At the event, the Chamber honored Eileen Ricketson with the Lifetime Achievement Award for her 45 years of active community service, including at The Apopka Chief. Laura Halfpenny, senior director of soccer growth for the U.S. Soccer Federation, delivered the keynote address. Halfpenny’s message to the nearly 100 attendees in the room was to contemplate their own leadership values and implement steps to grow their leadership capacity.
Honoring Eileen Ricketson
After accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award, Eileen Ricketson had asked Jamey Ricketson, her youngest of three sons, to read an acceptance remark on her behalf: “Mom wants to thank everyone of you,” Jamey Ricketson said. “She wrote this because none of us are going to be able to speak it, so I’ll try to make it for you.”
He followed with Eileen thanking the audience and acknowledging God’s blessings for her family and continued community work in the past, present and future: “My prayer is that you are able to continue making this community be all that God would have it be.”
Originally from Maryland, Eileen Ricketson married late Apopka Chief publisher John Ricketson on March 20, 1964, on a military base. After their eventual relocation to Florida, they became parents to three sons, all born in Gainesville: twins Jerry and Joey in 1969, and Jamey in 1971.
John Ricketson acquired The Apopka Chief and The Planter in late 1979 and became their publisher in 1982. Over the years, Eileen Ricketson took on such vital functions as overseeing subscriptions, invoicing of advertisers, and the Chief’s large legal notice business. She also managed the family’s Apopka Office Supply store.
Following John Ricketson’s death in July 2024, Eileen stepped into a much larger leadership role to continue the Chief and Planter’s weekly publications. Last month, she sold both newspapers to Mainstreet Daily News, a subsidiary of Orlando-based MARC Media.
Halfpenny’s keynote
Halfpenny began her keynote by leading the audience in the game “Rock, Paper, Scissors.” Afterward, she illustrated what each item in the game represents in leadership.
Being a rock means being able to stand up for someone or something: for oneself, one’s community or a principle.
“It’s not about being stubborn. It’s about conviction,” Halfpenny said. “So you might ask yourself the question right now, ‘What is it that I need to stand up for?’”
Being paper means being open with oneself, which she said is a must for personal growth.
“It might be being more flexible,” she said. “It might be listening to those people in your life who are really important and whose opinion really matters, and that’s what being open is.”
Being scissors means letting go in order to make space for the most important matters in life, and not to wait until tragedy strikes to reevaluate them.
“Think about time, because it’s finite. We can’t catch up to it. It doesn’t care about us. It just keeps going. It’s all we have. Don’t waste it,” Halfpenny said. “Ask yourself the question, don’t wait for the moment, ‘What is it today that you can let go of?’ …. It might be people in your life. It might be an attitude you have about yourself that you just need to let it go because it’s holding you back to something next.”
In her role as senior director of soccer growth at the U.S. Soccer Federation, which she assumed in February 2024, Halfpenny leads strategic initiatives aimed at broadening the sport’s appeal and participation nationwide.
Prior to joining the U.S. Soccer Federation, Halfpenny held leadership roles in various soccer organizations, namely Georgia State Soccer Association, a member organization of U.S. Soccer, and Orlando City Youth Soccer Club. Under her leadership, Georgia State Soccer Association became a leading educational arm of U.S. Soccer, delivering coaching and referee education.
The Apopka Chief is an award-winning weekly newspaper serving the greater Apopka area in Central Florida since 1923.
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