HOPE — Even though Debra Slone has been talking to groups and organizations about the importance of women’s suffrage for four years, the task is seldom easy.
Frequently, she must endure taunts from male listeners who feel she’d be better off staying home. Granted, those people are planted in the crowd by Slone herself to make the presentations more realistic to reflect the decades that women labored for equality in the face of all manner of adversity, including arrests.
But Slone figures there is no more arresting topic.
“I feel very strongly about all this,” she said.
Her outdoor town square rally presentation in Hope will be part of a free 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage Celebration Sept. 26 at the Yellow Trail Museum, 644 Main St. The general gathering will begin at 10 a.m. with creating the traditional votes-for-women sashes. Museum volunteers are encouraging girls to bring their dolls to make sashes for them. They’re also encouraging people to visit in costume, if they can.
And attendees will be encouraged to sign a banner supporting women voting in the upcoming election Nov. 3. Sloane’s presentation, done in an authentic 1907 costume, will occur at noon.
“The hats are the hardest thing to find,” Slone said.
A march around the square will follow ending at Willow Leaves of Hope for lunch and discussion. The day is slated to end at 3 p.m.
Organizers such as Slone and Susan Fye, executive director of Main Street of Hope, said there’s no way to know how many people to expect. The history club at Hauser Junior Senior High School is helping to spread the word. But Slone knows that these kind of events are more important than more reminders of re-enactments.
She knows that because, last month, as she walked to the Bartholomew County Historical Society Museum in costume for an exhibit on women’s suffrage, an older teen girl stopped her on the sidewalk and complimented Slone’s all-white, filmy dress.
“It’s for women’s suffrage,” Slone told her.
“What’s THAT?” asked the girl.
Fye said she finds it interesting that events marking the ratification of the 19th Amendment are unfolding simultaneously with publicity about only the third major party female vice presidential candidate in Kamala Harris.
“The moons are aligning,” Fye said.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”About the event” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
What: Free 100 Years of Women’s Suffrage Celebration.
When: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 26.
Where: Beginning at the Yellow Trail Museum, 644 Main St. and the Hope Town Square.
Information: Susan Fye at stf925@sbcglobal.net
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