Casady YAC Youth Active in the Community: March 2014

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Women's History Month

MARCH 2014, A MONTH ALMOST PAST

Basketball's March Madness-Lenten Ashes and Prayer, A Saint Patrick's Irish Fling-Chilly and Gray Day First Day of Spring! Time for early Spring Cleaning-meaning-Dust I must.

Hold the soft cloth in my aging 86th year old blue vein hand to dust a four generation picture in a gold Victorian frame once thought quite grand.

The Youngest Generation, My Mother, Born in 1898, Nearly Four.

The Other Three Generations Of Women- Those That Came Before.

A Precious, Vivid, Visual Reminder That March Is Also

"National Women's History Month"

For in March 1857- I Read- It All Began Indeed-With Women- New York Factory Workers- Poorly Paid- Working Long Hours In Deplorable Conditions- United They Arose- Became Bold We Are Told, And Thus The Fight For Women's Rights Began.

It was well over a century later by Presidential Proclamation in the year 1987, the month of March will annually be celebrated as National Women's History Month.

I look in the frame at the Faces of the Women who Came Before Me. They wanted to be Stronger, Better Educated, Wives and Mothers. They chose to attend "Female Institutes" the Forerunners of Universities, thus Teaching was also a profession they chose. They gave their voices to the causes of Temperance and Sobriety (the WCTU) Women's Suffrage was their big cause (Ever Pushing for Women's Voting Rights) and as Methodist Women they heard the financial need, the early missionary call as women in the mission field off to China went (Encouraging the Women not to Bind their Babies Feet) In other words, Bibles some well hidden, were also sent!

As we come to TODAY, our nation trains women in the Military to serve proudly wherever duty may demand and women serve as Pastors in churches throughout our vast land. The Women who followed in my own family became Teachers - Store Keepers- Bankers-a Social Worker and one with a Medical Degree.

Now, Equal Pay for Equal Work for women that according to the "statistics", I shall not live to see. But "The Glass Ceiling"- though not shattered totally
Today, I see the Cracks grow ever wide.

We As Women Must Take Great Pride
For With Faith In God, Dedication And Dignity
We Continue A Force Of Change And Strength Throughout All History.

Marolyn Donnelly Stout, 2014 National Women's History Month

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Monday, March 24, 2014

Muslim Voices, Girl Rising

March is Women's History Month

Come join the Muslim Voices book club! Are you curious about Muslim culture? Are you a Muslim teen who would like to read books featuring Muslim characters? Broaden your world view. Appreciate a new perspective.
Be part of the conversation! Books available now from Mr. Crofton!

All meetings will take place at
The Village Library
10307 N. Pennsylvania
at 12:30 pm

March 29th

Does My Head Look Big in This by Randa Abdel-Fattah

April 12th

Ask Me No Questions by Marina Budhos

May3rd

How Does It Feel to be a Problem by Moustafa Bayoum

May 10th

Persepolis (graphic novel) by Marjane Satrapi

Ages 13-18 are welcome.
Free books and lunch provided to teens participating in the book club!
BRING A FRIEND! Limited to 25 participants

To register for the program and receive your free book, visit the circulation desk at The Village Library, or see Mr. Crofton or Ms. Clay to register if you are a student at Casady School. Sign-up at http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090D45AEAA22A46-muslim

This program is sponsored by the New York Council for the Humanities and underwritten by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Local support is provided by the Oklahoma Humanities Council, Casady School Service-Learning Program, and the Metropolitan Library System.

Girl Rising

What and Who? The Oklahoma City chapter of the United Nations Association in collaboration with the Casady YAC and the Casady Service-Learning Program are proud to present free screenings of the highly acclaimed film, "Girl Rising."

Where and When? March 29th
@ Casady Wing, two screenings. Morning at 10:00 AM- 12:15. Afternoon Screening: 3:45 to 5:55

The UN youth board has purchased the DVD and are interested in promoting the movie in Oklahoma City. If interested in facilitating a movie screening for your organization contact: Kellen Moore
KCMoore20@yahoo.com; Priya Desai pdesai8606@yahoo.com

The movie is provided free or charge. You have to have a place where to show it, equipment and a possible audience. Donations are requested at the end of the movie, but not required. The goal is to raise awareness.

Girl Rising stories:
"Sokha was a Cambodian child of the dump; orphaned and forced to pick through garbage to survive. But, through a series of miracles, Sokha finds her way to school and, like a phoenix, rises to become a star student on the brink of a brilliant and once unimaginable future."
"Sokha was a Cambodian child of the dump; orphaned and forced to pick through garbage to survive. But, through a series of miracles, Sokha finds her way to school and, like a phoenix, rises to become a star student on the brink of a brilliant and once unimaginable future."

"Wadley is just 7 when the world comes crashing down around her. Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake destroys her home and school, but it cannot break her irrepressible spirit nor extinguish her thirst to learn, even as she’s turned away from the schoolhouse day after day."

"Though her brothers go to school, Suma is forced into bonded labor at age 6. The Nepali girl endures years of grueling work by expressing her sorrow in beautiful music and lyrics. Suma glimpses a different future by learning to read, the first step on the road to freedom."

( Read more synopses at the Girl Rising website ... here )

"Girl Rising" shows that, when you educate a girl, you can break cycles of poverty in just one generation."

Here's what people are saying about Girl Rising:

“Girl Rising gives me hope. It gives me hope for the future of our girls, that they will have a chance to explore and achieve their full potential. That they will make the ignorant part of society value their existence and that they will be proud to be born a Girl!”

– Freida Pinto

“Girls’ rights will be the focus of the 10x10 Initiative when... award winning journalists and film-makers will expose in the new documentary Girl Rising just how unfair the distribution of educational opportunities is for so many millions of girls around the world.”

– Gordon Brown, Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; UN Special Envoy for Global Education.

“This film gives visual corroboration to knowledge we already have: Educating women and girls has the most optimistic, positive effects on families, communities, and economies worldwide. If to see it is to know it, this film delivers hope; reasonable, measurable, tangible hope that the world can be healed and helped to a better future!”

– Meryl Streep

“10x10 is building a global campaign, working with partner organizations on the ground to demand and actualize equal education for girls and women. Their slogan? Educate Girls, Change the World. I couldn’t agree more.”

– Cecilia Attias, President and Founder of the Cecilia Attias Foundations for Women; former First Lady of France