The YWCA Jamestown will honor its 2026 Women of Achievement – Leishya Rios Pérez, Makayla Santiago-Froebel, Briana Postle, Crystal Surdyk and Diana Scott – on July 31 at the Celoron Harbor Hotel.

The awards ceremony was held recently at the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel.

“YWCA Jamestown has a proud tradition of celebrating and amplifying the women of Chautauqua County who work on behalf of our community to create a more equitable, inclusive place to live and work. We thank all the nominees for their contributions, and we invite our friends and neighbors to help honor them at our annual award dinner,” said Priscilla (Polly) Hampton, YWCA Jamestown board president.

The Women of Achievement dinner and celebration will be held on Friday, July 31, at the Chautauqua Harbor Hotel in Celoron. The event begins at 5:30 p.m. with hors’ d’oeuvres followed by a buffet dinner, a presentation and basket giveaway. Tickets are $75 and available at www.ywcajamestown.com/woa. Sponsors include The Chautauqua Center, Courier Capital, Kellogg Design, Kaycee Colburn, Cummins JEP Women’s Empowerment Network, Greater Chautauqua Federal Credit Union, The Resource Center, and Zosh, Franjoine & Cieri P.C.

For more information, visit www.ywcajamestown.com/woa or call 716-488-2237.

“Each nominee and recipient represents the heart of what it means to be a changemaker. Their courage, compassion, and unwavering commitment to justice and equity inspire us all,” said Amanda Gesing, YWCA Jamestown executive director. “Now more than ever, it’s important that we celebrate women and support them in standing fully in their power–to build stronger communities, uplift others, and drive inclusive, collective growth. At YWCA Jamestown, we know that strong women build strong communities, and we are honored not just to celebrate them, but to highlight the incredible impact they bring to Chautauqua County.”

The 2026 Women of Achievement are:

LEISHYA RIOS PEREZ

RISING STAR AWARD

Leishya Rios Perez is a 15-year-old entrepreneur who attends Jamestown High School and will be entering her sophomore year. When she is not running her business, Leishya enjoys playing sports. She competes in both football and basketball and values being part of a team while continuing to challenge herself both on and off the field and court.

Leishya started her business, Chachy’s Lemonades, when she was 7 years old. At the time, she had a pop-up tent, one table, and two flavors of lemonade–Regular and Strawberry. Every lemonade was made fresh to order using hand-cut lemons and freshly pressed strawberries.

In the early years of her business, Leishya traveled from event to event with everything packed into her mother’s SUV, serving customers at softball tournaments, community events, and anywhere she was invited to set up. Because she was too young to manage social media, her parents created a Facebook page for Chachy’s Lemonades in 2022 to help promote the business.

At 12 years old, Leishya purchased her first food trailer, known as “The Lemonade Truck.” Today, it has grown into a full-service lemonade trailer offering more than 20 different flavors. She travels throughout Chautauqua County and beyond, serving as a vendor at festivals, community events, and special occasions.

The success of Chachy’s Lemonades also allowed Leishya to help her younger sister, who was 7 years old at the time, purchase her own hot dog cart. Together, they launched “Tita’s Dogs,” and Leishya mentors her sister just as her mother mentored her.

MAKAYLA SANTIAGO-FROEBEL

POWER THE FUTURE

Raised in the Bronx and now rooted in Western New York, Makayla Santiago-Froebel is a storyteller and advocate for underrepresented voices. She serves as interim associate director of belonging and community relations at Chautauqua Institution, where she leads Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility (IDEA) initiatives and builds strong partnerships with community leaders and stakeholders. This summer, Santiago-Froebel is organizing the institution’s first-ever Naturalization Ceremony. She brings more than a decade of experience across arts and cultural organizations, such as the Mark Morris Dance Group and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House. Her work at Chautauqua has included contributions to the Chautauqua Opera Company & Conservatory and Chautauqua Theater Company, alongside broader institution-wide efforts focused on change management, communications and community building. She holds dual bachelor’s degrees from the State University at Fredonia, a master’s degree from Canisius College, and a Diversity & Inclusion certificate from Cornell University. She serves as president of the Board of Infinity Performing and Visual Arts in Jamestown and as a board member of Arts Services Inc. in Buffalo.

BRIANA POSTLE

CATALYST FOR CHANGE

Briana J. Postle is a licensed clinical social worker with 17 years of experience. She is the owner of Postle Counseling Services, where she provides psychotherapy to children, adolescents, and adults with a focus on trauma, anxiety, depression, and life transitions. In addition to her clinical work, Postle has served as a college instructor in social work, teaching courses in trauma-informed care while mentoring and supervising social work students through their field placements. Her passion for field education centers on helping future social workers bridge classroom learning with real-world practice, fostering professional identity, ethical decision-making, and trauma-informed approaches to care. Postle is also the founder and executive director of Together We Bloom Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening protective factors for positive mental health through community-based

CRYSTAL SURDYK

SHATTERED CEILING AWARD

Crystal Surdyk serves as the Jamestown development director, where she leads efforts to strengthen neighborhoods, expand opportunity, and foster community revitalization through strategic planning, housing initiatives, economic development and public-private partnerships. Having overcome significant childhood adversity, including time spent in foster care, she understands firsthand the importance of stability, support, and opportunity. Those experiences shaped her commitment to helping others and continue to guide her work in public service. A lifelong advocate for collaboration and civic engagement, Surdyk strives to bring people together around a shared vision for the future.

DIANA SCOTT

DOROTHY HEIGHT LEGACY AWARD

Diana Scott is a retired business owner, community volunteer and longtime resident of Chautauqua County. Throughout her career and into retirement, her passion has always been simple: feeding people and bringing communities together. During her years with Home Depot and Lowe’s, Scott organized employee events, taught hands-on classes for women and wrote community grants supporting Joint Neighborhood Project and the 2XL Program. In 2015, Scott founded Studio D Catering, where she also remained committed to giving back by donating her time to numerous nonprofit organizations, helping them host memorable events within their financial means. She provided Thanksgiving dinners for the Jamestown Police Department, the Jamestown Fire Department and UCAN Mission for many years. In retirement, Scott has continued her community work through initiatives such as the 18th Street Pantry and by helping prepare and coordinate meals for the Jamestown Warming Center, helping ensure that guests received a hot meal every day throughout the shelter’s operating season. Through the generosity of volunteers and community donations, the 18th Street Pantry now provides $900 worth of supplemental food each week to families experiencing food insecurity. Scott is a mother of two, Taylor Scott and Alexander Scott, and has been married to her husband, Dana, for 43 years.