CT WOMEN'S HALL OF FAME CELEBRATES TWO DECADES OF EDUCATION AND HONOR

THE NEWEST INDUCTEES TO THE CONNECTICUT WOMEN'S HALL OF FAME                                

How appropriate that March is Women's History Month and the New Haven Public Library hosted an informative talk on a little known state gem:  the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.  Created twenty years ago to honor, preserve, educate and inspire, the administrative offices of CWHF are housed on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University, fittingly where a woman,  Dr. Mary A. Papazian, serves as president. 

To meet the 102 inductees in the fields of business, medicine, politics, reform, literature, entertainment, sports and education, you're invited to go online to www.cwhf.org and take a virtual tour.  You will meet women, who according to Katherine Wiltshire, Executive Director, faced "tremendous obstacles and overcame them to be an inspiration in their chosen field."  You will clearly recognize women like Katharine Hepburn, Marian Anderson, Helen Keller, Dorothy Hamill and Ella Grasso, the first woman elected governor.

Less likely to be easily identified but no less worthy of note are women like Isabella Beecher Hooker who worked tirelessly to allow females to own personal property, Mary Hall the first female lawyer in the state, Alice Paul who was arrested frequently in her quest to secure women the right to vote, Emeline Roberts Jones who learned the science of dentistry from her husband to become the first female dentist, Barbara McClintock who won a Nobel Prize for her work on DNA and Dorrit Hoffleit who was a famous astronomer, to name but a few.

Katherine Wiltshire described these inductees as "courageous and tenacious," who knew how to raise their voices and not be discouraged by the naysayers.

On Wednesday, November 6, from 6-9 p.m., the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford will be the site of the 20th Anniversary Induction Ceremony and Celebration of the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame.  The new Inductees include the U.S. Representative of Connecticut's 3rd district and women's champion Rosa DeLauro; President and CEO of Barbara Franklin Enterprises and 29th U. S. Secretary of Commerce Barbara Hackman Franklin who led the first White House effort to recruit women for high level government jobs; Linda Koch Lorimer the vice president of Yale University who spearheads strategic partnerships locally and internationally; and, posthumously, Augusta Lewis Troup, a union organizer, journalist and promoter of the suffrage movement as well as a beloved educator and advocate for teachers and minority groups.  For tickets ($150), call 203-392-9007 or visit www.cwhf.org.

You can also call to arrange for speakers or visual displays to be available for your organization.

Let the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame be an inspiration for girls and women alike, to educate and encourage and be positive role models for the future.