Our mission
Women heal better together.
Rilassati Women's Retreats educates, encourages and supports women in matters of health and wellness.
We are a nonprofit rooted in Port Arthur, Beaumont, Orange and the surrounding communities of Southeast Texas. We bring women together around the health challenges that touch our families most, and we make sure no woman has to face them alone.
Our name comes from the Italian word for relax. It is an invitation to breathe, to set something heavy down for a moment and to let other women help carry it.
Mother to daughter
Rilassati grew out of one family's decision to show up for its neighbors.
In 2002, Father Larry Gutierrez of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Port Arthur watched women in his parish face breast cancer alone. He asked Dr. Winifred "Winnie" Frelow to help. Winnie was a respected educator, one of the first African American teachers at Thomas Jefferson High School and later a leader in Port Arthur's schools. She was also walking the road herself.
She said yes. Winners For Life began in her living room, and the first seminar followed in 2003: a salad and sweets luncheon for about 25 women. Many older women in the community avoided screening out of modesty, and some were lost because of it. Winnie answered with honest talk, plain information and a room full of women who understood.
Dr. Frelow led Winners For Life until she passed in 2013. From 2014 until 2018, Elvira Narcisse carried it on as a committee of Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Dr. Frelow's daughter, Tracey Young, who founded Rilassati Women's Retreats in 2013, brought Winners For Life home to Rilassati in 2018, so her mother's vision would never again rest on one room or one year.
Today the seminar draws roughly 200 women to the Port Arthur Civic Center, and on April 10, 2027, Winners For Life marks its 25th Anniversary.
Three causes, one family story
Pink, purple and blue stand for three causes that were never separate.
Dr. Frelow faced both breast and pancreatic cancer, and pancreatic cancer ties closely to diabetes. Caring for the woman in front of us means caring for the whole picture of her health, so Rilassati holds all three together.
The bracelet tells that story. Each strand stands for one cause, and they are braided into a single piece because in one family's life, they were never separate.
- Pink for breast cancer, the cause of Winners For Life
- Purple for pancreatic cancer, the cause of Purple Pumps
- Blue for diabetes, the cause of Blue Hearts Brunch
Winners For Life offers breast cancer support, sisterhood and survivorship, anchored by the annual seminar and a mammogram fund that stays in Southeast Texas through Gift of Life in Beaumont. Visit Winners For Life
Blue Hearts Brunch brings neighbors living with diabetes to one table for food, music and information they can trust. We have held it twice, and it has grown each time. Visit Blue Hearts Brunch
Purple Pumps launches in 2027 with Purple Reign, a fashion evening that gives pancreatic cancer the spotlight it rarely gets. Visit Purple Pumps
What we believe
No woman should carry it alone
A diagnosis, a caregiving season or a daily health routine is lighter when other women share the load. Sisterhood is the heart of everything we do.
Help should stay close to home
Winnie believed help should reach the neighbor next door. The money we raise for mammograms stays in Southeast Texas, and our gatherings happen where our women live.
Plain information saves lives
Fear and modesty keep women from screening. We speak honestly and simply about health, and we point women to the care they need.
Promise only what we can keep
We say plainly what is ready today and what is still coming. When we tell a woman we will be there, we mean it.
Who we serve
We serve women facing a diagnosis and women who have come through one. We serve the daughters, sisters and friends who drive them to appointments and sit beside them in waiting rooms. We serve neighbors living with diabetes every day, and families who have lost someone and want that loss to mean something.
We also welcome the volunteers, sponsors, churches and businesses who make our gatherings possible. Everyone who cares about the health of Southeast Texas women has a place here.
Our leadership
Tracey R. Young, RN, BSN, JD, is our founder, president and chief executive officer. Trained in both nursing and law, she brings clinical understanding and careful stewardship to the work her mother began.
Crystal Williams is our chief operating officer, keeping our programs, events and volunteers moving.
Dr. Jacquelyn Green Timmons is our chief community engagement and partnerships officer.
Tonja Voorhies is our executive recording secretary.
Rilassati Women's Retreats is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Come heal with us
Join the sisterhood and hear first about gatherings, events and ways to help.