On February 21st the members of Ms President US gathered again at the Ridgefield Library for the second to last session of the program this year. This session was focused around Women’s History and the Votes for Women as 2020 celebrates the 100th year of women’s suffrage.
Joining the girls were Liz Krebs (Education Director at the CT Women’s Hall of Fame), Dee Dee Colabella (founding Ms President US advisory board member and founder of RPAC), and Savannah Joseph (Ms. President US 2019 Wilton).
Dee Dee Colabella kicked off the session by providing the girls with an opportunity in order to jumpstart their campaign and gain voters. She offered the computers, designers, and the facilities at the RPAC center for the girls to use in order to design their campaign posters. She then suggested the girls post the flyers around town, stressing the importance of promoting yourself and your campaign.
The campaign was further expanded upon by Savannah Joseph as she described how it felt to win the election and become Ms President US Wilton. She acknowledged how the program changed her focus from always being around sports to a necessity in life, public speaking and leadership. Joseph says, “Ms President taught me real-life skills that are necessities not choices.”
The speaker portion of the session concluded with Liz Krebs who taught the members of Ms President US how women in Connecticut (even a few in Ridgefield) have helped shape our state, nation, and world. Participants first took part in a simulation to understand how it was like to live without women’s suffrage. Only half of the room was able to vote on a topic whereas the other side had to watch. One girl mentioned after the activity how “it felt odd knowing I could vote and they [the other girls] couldn’t.” Additionally, the girls were encouraged to take active roles in the future by looking at the 125 inductees into the CT Women’s Hall of Fame. Krebs inspired the girls that they could be influential female leaders by saying “believe in something that you feel is right.” For more information about the hall of fame visit www.cwhf.org.
The session was concluded with time for the girls to work on their campaigns for the upcoming election. The election will be held on March 29th from 2pm-4pm at the Ridgefield Playhouse and are free and open to the public.
Ms President US is dedicated to motivating and preparing girls to aim for the highest civic leadership positions. For questions or more information, please contact info@mspresidentus.org.