President's Message

I am always busy, which is perhaps the chief reason why I am always well.   -Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Every October we celebrate the spirit of the first National Woman’s Rights Convention (1850) when women from across the nation came together in Worcester to organize in pursuit of the right to vote.  We are able to celebrate the achievement of their dream for “equality before the law, without distinction of sex or color” due to the hard work of many women from then through to women’s gaining the vote seventy years later.

I think Abby would agree that it’s important for people to get out and discuss the issues, and to make use of the hard-earned right to vote.  Toward that end, we’re involved in a few upcoming events related to getting out the vote. First we’ve been working with the Worcester League of Women Voters to train poll observers for the November election. We will be marching in the October 7 Columbus Day Parade, raising the visibility of the organization while we’re also reminding people to vote. Please get in touch if you want to participate in any of these events — on our Facebook page or at wwhp.office@gmail.com.

This October 13, we’ll be hosting our annual meeting at the Worcester Historical Museum, featuring a presentation about the Oread Institute by Jan Parent from Preservation Worcester. We hope you’ll join us, get to know some of the steering committee members a bit better, and maybe decide this is the year you’ll become more actively involved on a working group. Perhaps you have talents that could advance our mission by helping with one of a variety of activities from event planning to poster design. Maybe you have time to write a story for our next newsletter, or take photos at an event.  There are so many ways to contribute.

We’d love to get to know you better, so get involved! As Abby Kelley Foster said during her 1851 speech at the second national convention, “Oh, how truly does Webster say, Action, action, is eloquence! Let us, then, when we go home, go not to complain, but to work.” There is plenty of work to be done, documenting the lives and stories of today’s Worcester women through our Oral History Project, sharing the words of Abby and the convention through the interpretive work of Lynne McKenney Lydick, and bringing together a community of women who value and want to take time to celebrate the accomplishments of Worcester’s women past and present. Thank you for being a part of that community. Enjoy the newsletter!

                 Sincerely,

                   Heather-Lyn Haley

                   President, WWHP