Thursday, March 24, 2011, Hope Standard A9
Community 26 SWITCH OFF FOR International Women’s Day MARCH 8:30PM
An inspiring local International Woman’s Day celebration, hosted by the Hope and Area Transition Society and Hope Inclusion Project, was the sharing of hope, love, joy and gratitude. The event, held at the SOCIA building, drew 42 people, including women’s rights activist, Jean Scott, the namesake of Hope’s transition house. “Jean Scott was the guest speaker and received a standing ovation,” said event organizer, Cheryl Lynne Lacey, of the Transition Society. “She recounted the many reasons that women are special and she had a huge impact on the participants; she was cheered.” The large group, including the 15 women nominated locally for inspiring others, met to discuss the gains that have been made in women’s rights and the challenges and barriers women still face today. “It was the 100th anniversar y of International Women’s day which is why we chose to look at how far women have come in the last 100 years and how far we have to go in the next 100 years. Local women nominated for being
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Jean Scott, the namesake of Hope’s transition house (right) receives flowers during an event marking International Women’s Day. inspirational were Linda Greene, Sabine Keil, Johanna Coughlin, Diane Ferguson, Linda Bailey, Sharon Blythe, Heaven Regnier, Carolynn Getz, Anna Gladue, Debbie Bergeron, Jean Scott, Kim Roberts, Elaine Lawton, Rhoda Peters and Erin Wilkinson. “All of these women were nominated for going above and beyond in helping individuals, volunteering in their community, putting family first, raising funds and awareness for special causes and for being positive role
models,” added Lacey. “Each of the women were given their letter of nomination but not the name of the person who nominated them.” Lacey and Maureen Kehler, of the co-sponsoring Hope Inclusion Project, a project to battle racism in the community, called the women to stand and be recognized, reading out a long list of comments made by their many nominators. “The wrap up for the workshop was a compilation of barriers facing women. The
Reading for literacy Maureen Kehler Literacy Outreach Coordinator, Fraser Cascade
Pages Bookstore & Fraser Cascade Literacy Centre hosted Hope’s first 24 hour Read-aloud-athon. From midnight on March 8 to midnight on March 9 voices were heard reading novels, poems, short stories, and essays. Sixty people participated in shifts throughout the day and night. The youngest reader was eight and the oldest was over 70. Participants heard classics like “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” and “Tom Jones”; love stories and fantasy; children’s books read by children to children. In the wee hours a play called “The Oresteia” by Aeschylus was read. There seemed to be a BC history theme for a few hours with books like “Here in Hope”, “Voyages Home”, “Personality Ships of British Columbia” and “A
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Pioneer Gentlewoman in British Columbia”. There were essays on knitting; a memoir on a “Mennonite in a Little Black Dress”; and an excerpt from “Restaurant at the End of the Universe”. A Grade 3 class from Coquihalla Elementary School practiced ahead of time and did 40 minutes of choral reading; 21 children’s voices reading in unison. Hope was registered and counted along with places like Time Square in New York City in the World Read Aloud Day to promote literacy for all people. “World Read Aloud Day is about taking action to show the world that the right to read and write belongs to all people. By raising our voices together on this day we show the world’s children that we support their future: that they have the right to read, to write, and to share their words to change the world.” ~ www. litworld.org
question was then put out to the larger group about what commitment they would make in the following year that would assist breaking down these barriers,” added Lacey. Participants committed to work towards education other males on the women’s issues, to speaking up when derogatory comments are overheard, to encouraging women to volunteer in the community, and to continue to bring the healing value of art to women of the community.
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