When 43-year-old Jan Fraser applied to work in the airline industry, she expected to be the oldest flight-attendant-in-training there.
Instead, she was one of the youngest, and she was inspired. “There were women who were 68 years old!” she remembers. “The amazing thing is there is so much of life out there to achieve and find, and as long as you keep your health in good shape, you can do anything you put your mind to.”
If Fraser’s long list of achievements is anything to go by, then she has succeeded in putting her mind to many things. Her career with American Airlines saw her rise through the ranks to become a training instructor and sent her throughout the United States, South Korea, Japan, Guam, Australia, Turkey, Italy and India. This, she says, is what started her on her path. After leaving the airline industry, she went on to conduct training for a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies, small businesses, schools, colleges, women’s organisations, library systems, prisons and associations. She also assists Chicken Soup for the Soul author Jack Canfield with his seminars and has written five books.
Fraser’s conferences range in topic from customer service and transformational leadership to helping women make and reach personal goals. This is how the Dream Club came about. “The Dream Club is a group of women who get together to talk about our dreams and then follow steps to achieve them,” Fraser says. “You can put a dream out there, but then you have to take action—the universe rewards action. Women need to be surrounded by supportive people who believe in us. Sometimes we don’t have someone we can rely on to say something positive. We don’t want to trust our dreams to just anybody, because that person might sabotage them forever.”
One of the Dream Club’s dreams was to host a seminar for women in Bermuda to help P.A.L.S., and three years ago this dream came to fruition. Fraser has a special place in her heart for P.A.L.S. and cancer research because her mother was a breast-cancer survivor. Fraser regularly participates in walks benefiting breast-cancer research in the United States and raises money for the cause. She also organized Bermuda’s version of the U.S. walks known as The Pink Mile.
“The ladies involved in cancer walks like these always say they do it because ‘it could be me.’ Because of my parents and friends, I am always involved in a cancer project of some kind. Whenever I speak for cancer benefits there is no charge, because I do it from the heart. It makes sense to me and resonates with me.”
DREAM CLUB EVENTS
On Friday, September 30, the Dream Club hosts a Dream Danceathon for P.A.L.S. at Botanical Gardens, South Road, Paget, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
This year’s Dream Big Women’s Conference for P.A.L.S will be held on Saturday, October 22, at Christ Church Warwick, Middle Road, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. There will be professional and personal speaking topics, musical entertainment, lunch and tea. All proceeds benefit P.A.L.S. Tickets will be available through Bermuda Tix, or you can call P.A.L.S. at 236-7257 for more information.
