On Saturday, Nov. 1 Bucks
held the 26th Annual Day for
All Women with a special
appearance by Michelle
Grossman of NBC-10.
The developmental conference
featured workshops
focusing on health issues and
personal and professional
development.
The event was co-hosted by
Bucks and the Bucks County
Commissioner’s Advisory
Council for Women.
“In direct response to evaluations
from past participants,
the theme of the conference
this year will be
women’s health issues,” said
conference coordinator
Marian Cello. “We’ve invited
St. Mary Medical Center as
our ‘gold’ sponsor, and have
included workshops ranging
from belly dancing to cardiovascular
health.”
About 400 women attended
the event and chose from
three different workshops
and five dozen offerings
ranging from career management
and family issues.
Free health screenings were
also offered.
In addition to the selected
workshops, Michelle
Grossman, meteorologist of
NBC-10, was the keynote
speaker of the day. She talked
about balancing the stresses
of work and home, all the
while maintaining a confident
wellbeing.
She also
wanted to get
the message
across to
never give up
on dreams
and goals no
matter how
old one is,
and that hard
times only
teaches determination.
Grossman,
a Doylestown
native, began
the conference
by
telling the
audience it
was her lifelong
dream
to become a
meteorologist.
Growing up she recorded
the weather to learn everything
about it.
Grossman grew up in a
large family where money
was tight, but it made her
self-reliant.
“I had the Barbie, but not
the jeep,” said Grossman,
insinuating that life wasn’t
horrible.
Through her parents’ hard
work ethic, she developed her
own sense of self-reliance and
learned to work hard for “the
life your Barbie deserves.”
Grossman moved on to
Penn State University and
thought, being from a small
town, she couldn’t make it
out on her own, but decided
to continue with her goal of
becoming successful.
She graduated from Penn
State with a bachelor’s degree
and worked eight years in
sales. However, Grossman
still had the “weather bug.”
By this time, Grossman was
28 and realized the risk wasn’t
that bad, so she decided to
quit her job in sales and take
an unpaid internship at news
station. At the internship, she
learned she was the oldest
one there, but she didn’t let
this bust her confidence.
“I had more confidence
than I did when I was 18,”
said Grossman as she felt she
was in the right place at the
right time.
After her internship was
over, Grossman stayed at the
news station and they gave
her a job preparing the
weather graphics for the
meteorologists.
The station eventually promoted
her to the weekend
weather woman and on her
first day on camera, she told
viewers there was a chance of
tomatoes instead of a chance
of tornadoes.
With her new job,
Grossman found herself
thrust into the public eye and
experienced some nasty feedback
with viewers, with one
e-mail complaining her suit
was too tight.
The newly appointed
weather woman found herself
wanting to stay home,
but she was presented with a
challenge and “with dreams
comes the realities.”
“I am here because it was
my dream,” said Grossman.
Grossman closed her
address with a comforting
message.
“To be healthy and develop
yourself, you have to want to
change and when you get to
that dream remember who
you are, don’t forget yourself.”