welcome to international women's day celebration in burlington vermont this is our fifth year of celebrating this important holiday folks who are getting food please feel free to do so and take a seat whenever you feel like it it's also sign to get up during the presentation of the gaps of food and then come back any way i want to wel will come together without all of us so today we honor and pay tribute to the contributions women and girls bring to the world and to our own city of burlington they bring to our communities intelligence warmth nurturing strength grit and fire look around and see the women and girls who make up such an important part of the fabric of our city we welcome all who have come to celebrate them thanks for coming and before we get started i'd like to thank a really tough high school for hosting our adventure it's a wonderful venue complete with international flags all over the place and the tremendous support from that tech person here and from our food service company the burlington school company that is providing water and and lemonade over there along food and our main sponsors however are the caroline fund and ned and joanne winterbottom we thank them very much for underwriting the cost of this event in kind contributions are no small thing either designed to club of burlington comprises a few members of our planning group  and they are with us every year and believe we really appreciate their assistance the peace and justice center has helped us along with burlington city arts with promoting our that thank you all for bringing this terrible storm of so we've held back to where there are so hopefully we can get through our program here please see also the back of the program for additional contributors that have provided there our sponsors contributed general slee what they could by our shoestring operation could use a little more help if you would like to support our efforts we would greatly appreciate any contribution you could make the donation jars are located along with the food on those tables over there thank you so much a couple of housekeeping notes and the bathrooms are in the hallway that they that you entered from off to the right hand side  snacks and drinks those pretty easily and feel free to come and go throughout the program as you like but please do so quietly anyway to start off our program  weinberger our mayor just reelected and who's unable to attend has declared a proclamation an honor of march eighth international women's day and doreen craft who's the director of city arts is going to come up and read the proclamation for yeah i'm just trying to keep a great so it's my great pleasure to read this plaque proclamation this evening whereas the city of burlington recognizes the importance of ensuring the rights of women of all ages so they can lead secure creative healthy and free lives and whereas in spite of international efforts to achieve equity many girls and women struggle against discrimination and second class citizenship remain an educated and poor and are often victims of physical and sexual abuse and whereas international women's day on march eighth provides a world wide holiday to educate all people about the condition of women and girls throughout the world and whereas the city wishes to use this day to honor and celebrate the contributions of women of all nations as mothers daughters grandmothers relatives friends and colleagues to our society and to recommit ourselves to respecting the rights of all women and whereas the city wishes to take this opportunity to celebrate the diversity of burlington's residents and to learn from women in our community about their experiences and their aspirations and where as the city welcomes and celebrates the arrival to our community of new american families including many women and whereas the city appreciates the contributions of the many women who work for the city of burlington delivering services and supporting the community and whereas the city applauds international women days honorees gillis publisher of vermont woman a local newspaper barbara jordan a fitness expert an advocate dolly fleming director of mercy connections and toronto burke originator of the me too movement now they are for i i want to talk a little bit about the origin of international women's day and also allow you to question or wonder why international women's day took so long to be recognized here in the united states international women's day came out of an international day for women in new york city in nineteen zero eight however it was made an international holiday in one thousand nine hundred seventeen and i want to mention why i believe that it was in hundred seventeen and in russia or as it was called then the soviet union in one nine hundred seventeen it was recognized as international women's day throughout the world the reason i believe it was was nine hundred seventeen was in the middle of the most catastrophic war at the beginning of the most catastrophic wars that this world has seen it was the world war one and the russians in one nine hundred seventeen as a reaction i think to there are enormous losses in world war one withdrew from world war one and created of what we now call and they called the soviet union so in one nine hundred seventeen there was a recognition that this huge revolution had happened in russia and it was the result of war it was a result of a real mood for peace there revolution in the entire world at that time the russians and the soviets honored women by proclaiming march eighth the international women's day and after that it was celebrated all over the world however it was never really celebrated that much in the united states i don't know why i leave you to wonder why but it was not celebrated in the united states although it was all over the world and i just want to tell you a personal story in that history i was a professor at burlington college for a very long time and i ran a free legal clinic on saturday mornings and one morning one of the students in that clinic arrived with roses for all the women all the people that were going to attend the clinic that day he was from russia or from moldova which at that time was part of the russian empire basically anyway and he brought us all roses and he reminded me that it was international women's day a fact that i had forgotten so from that day on we on this planning committee and i really want to thank lou andrews because she's the enormous planner of the whole group she's kind of the boston liberal and she's done a fabulous job of keeping this holiday alive for all of us here in burlington so welcome i'm so glad that you're here and let's make it a promise that from now on the united states will recognize women and their and girls on this very important holiday thank you i was told to be theory free so i have known robin for almost fifty years we have been friends film partners collaborators and worked ok and better and worked on many many different community events pageants and festivals together  robin has a deep passion for justice and nonviolence and wants one to be achieved through the other she believes that women have a unique ability to build a more peaceful world and her life is an example because she has dedicated her life's work to the sand robin comes from a family of social activists and writers and publishers from her grandfather as her father and her grandmother lola maverick lloyd who was very involved with trying to prevent world war one from happening and robin wrote a play about lolo her grandmother and took that play on the road including carrying a blast of her grandmother as part of that wonderful expression she is a founder co founder of the peace and justice coalition she is a strong advocate and a member of will and she head is a tax resister she's even spend some time in jail i didn't know if you knew that about rob and i went to visit her when she was down and with that nasty place what did robin to do with that period of her life is she really got to know the women in that prison and to become an advocate for their causes both inside and when she her term was over  so tonight robin is going to speak about the significant moments in burlington women's history and i'm very proud to introduce you to robin lloyd ok so hello everyone this is so exciting that that i got invited to introduce this international women's day and to the fact that they made such a perfect selection of women to honor i mean it's mind and body and honoring compassion through the mercy connection so i just think it was very cleverly put together five i mean to my mind this was a feminist victory although we didn't talk about it that way at all and because it was a victory for children and for housing and for and against militar and metal and killing and so in that sense i think we really should take credit for that so here is international women's day but it's also women's history month so i'd like to take a few steps backwards and then look forward i found in my archives a coffee of common woman from one thousand nine hundred eighty one and i'm wondering how many people were involved in  wrote for that magazine peggy great all right so it was it was really a radical feminist movement paper that covered the history of the popular and and publicized and went mainstream it had no it had no ads and so it was really a grassroots voice you can see from it here printed on newsprint the one nine hundred eighty one issue ha d an article that i had forgotten that i had written it was titled abortion and stopping the worms ok worms in those days we had weird acronyms and so worms was quite old rich men and and actually the whole issue was  devoted to women in peace reagan had just been elected and dictators were applauding from around the world the cold war suddenly became a lot colder and reagan was heard on them like saying i'll make legislation to outlaw russia we begin bombing in five minutes it's too bad he didn't have twitter i mean i'm sure he would have been a great twitter  writer in those days but it was a really crazy time when you think about it at that time i ran for congress twice on the citizens party ticket bernie was elected for mayor at that point in eighty one but my point in bringing this up is that it was a mere year and a half after reagan took office that we men women and men organized the largest peace demonstration in u s history in june of one thousand nine hundred eighty two in new york city we in vermont led the parade with bread and puppet theater and our proliferation of signs saying this city burlington voted for the nuclear freeze woodstock voted for the nuclear freeze and it brought a new concept into the peace movement the idea of a unilateral stop to nuclear weapons development it had an impact on reagan white house right now and i believe that widespread movement for change are going to blossom in the spring as it did in the spring of one thousand nine hundred eighty two but before going forward i want to touch on a few other highlights of women's piece history on the on the international level there was the women's effort at greenham common in england to encircle a u s cruise missile base women camped out there for years and it was their determination and energy that really close down that base after years of effort peggy was there i don't know if any others got to that wonderful event and then in one thousand nine hundred five the united nations fourth world conference on women in beijing china it was the most extraordinary gathering of women the world had ever seen  got there on a peace train that crossed that started in eastern europe and then crossed the great steps of china all the way to beijing it was organized by the women's international league for peace and freedom which during mentioned earlier the one that my grandmother was involved in and and i made a document of it which you can see on you tube piece trying to beijing it's an hour long document about the train experience and the what happened in beijing and we met and talked and and suffered and heard of the suffering and joys of women from around the world and of often the needless suffering women were experiencing you know male directed massage i was reminded by an article in vermont woman that sue gillis just wrote about stiletto heels and how it conveys in the modern day a kind of iraq the system but also and also heightened power i mean the mainstream media talk shows women are almost always wearing those to lead to heels and short skirts now but but it also has another side to it which  know that a woman can't run away of she's very fast at least if she's if she's wearing high heels and the connection to that to to the beijing conference was i attended a talk by a had way of oppressing women and connecting it to the stiletto heels we learned at the conference about all the all the other discriminations against women ways to keep a supply oppressed  and you know what they came out of that was thinking was that it's one thing to suffer from poverty and natural disasters that are common to all people but it's something else to hear directly from women who endure the deeply embedded male chauvinism and patriarchal systems that now the only crippled women's lives in china but you know in other countries  deaths in india that take place because families something hamleys are in conflict over the amount a dowry should be and often the young wife is the victim and then of course in african countries at the  continued widespread use of genital mutilation for young girls so you know there i i became immersed in global sisterhood really and it has inspired me ever since women who were fighting multiple oppressions and winning their rights and out of that came i think one of the  developments was a resolution passed by the united states security council called security council resolution thirteen twenty five and this is a resolution that mandates that all times of conflict and attempts to resolve conflict of wars in different cities inside and outside of of countries rather women have to have seat at the negotiating table and her signature needs to be on the final contract there have been mixed results from this resolution it was passed in two thousand clinton was very supportive of it but it but at least it gives women in conflict areas a handle with which to promote women's rights which are often got often forgotten in the midst of conflict and resolution of conflict and most recently women have been the impetus behind the nuclear weapons ban treaty which was signed by one hundred twenty two countries and which prohibits the development testing production manufacture and manufacturing acquisition or even threatened use of nuclear weapons and it will enter into force once it's been ratified by fifty states the petition that it may be moving amongst you over there all right margaret has it is a petition from the women's internationally for peace and freedom to sign and we will be we already have something like five thousand signatures that have been accumulated for that but we need more so finally i want to point out one more example of women taking action for peace women joined hands and crossed the d m z zone the demilitarized zone between north and south korea and they sent a you know a very powerful message out that was of course ignored by most of the mainstream media women want and need to participate in international negotiations and foreign policy process  and peace not should not be decided just by the men with guns war affects all people and peace can benefit all people men and women so so so you know let's go out and let's challenge authority and get ready for the many flowers that are going to bloom this spring i think this spring will be like the spring of one nine hundred eighty two after a year and a half of reagan world we will be having a year and a half of trump and i think people are ready for it whatever it may be called there is the children's march is happening the poor people's campaign which kicks off on mother's day may thirteenth the peace and justice center is sponsoring a peace conference on the twelfth of may the antiwar groups are mobilizing as well and you know definitely the rising so the need to movements and the it's time and time's up movements together with black lives matter i think will be leading these demands for real democracy so let's hope it includes a demand that our foreign policy shifts from blustering and threats to diplomacy and collaboration for peace thank you the school of the americas also is a place where many military people from other culture from other countries particular latin america were trained to be essentially assassins right and and so robin was at these demonstrations where she went every year and that year she did step over that line and then was put in jail for trespass right and she served i couldn't believe it for eighteen months or something like that three months while anyway three months hard labor splitting  oh well thank you very much robin and sandy and i want to thank all of you in fact i'm going to take your picture because i am so happy was such a big turnout here thank you for coming  science major i believe that our university the university of vermont where she got addicted to politics and i bet you also she got addicted to women's issues as well the reason we're honoring her tonight for many reasons just because she's a great friend she always in solidarity with other women but also she's the publisher of vermont woman which has been in existence since one nine hundred eighty five right it's one of many many awards it is always always present to the voice of women and those who love women and that includes of course a lot of men and so she deserves this award because she has always brought the voice of women into our community she's also commended them for all of their work and for their creativity she's provided a real voice for women and it is the longest continuous woman's newspaper i believe in the country right anyway thank you all so can i shared office at one point and it was the most chaotic but way creative office that i've ever been in because it's  happening back then but one of the things that was really irking me was that every single institution including newspapers in the media were own and run by men and what really bugged me was that these newspapers were writing about women and about women what women thought and they were being written by men and i thought well gee women are different from men in many ways which is lovely and have their own opinions and their own way of thinking about many many issues that don't necessarily coincide with those of men like war and babies for instance and health care just to name a few and also back in one thousand nine hundred five which is very hard for most of us to remember is that in vermont there was no no newspaper at all own or run or financed by women so remote woman was birth during that particular period and also it was very uncommon for there to be women judges or women lawyers or women doctors or women carpenters or engineers now all these years later almost thirty five years later it's a different story it's a different scene and we really and truly have come a long way in many many areas and here we are in one thousand nine hundred eighteen twenty twenty twenty eighteen twenty eighteen and we have a me to movement and a time out movement and the children parklane parklane florida coming forward and making their voices heard and known i think something in the great march that women had last year and this year really i feel very optimistic that things are starting to change in those areas as well sexual abuse sexual assault domestic violence guns assault weapons and so forth people are finding their voices and maybe we should think this pains me to say this this president of the united states donald trump who said the press is the enemy of the people how dreadful how very very dreadful that the leader of our country would say such a thing when so many people died for that first amendment so another word about vermont woman is  that you know it takes a village to produce a newspaper i'm standing up here but i'm only the publisher we have we've had wonderful editors for for for vermont woman over the years unfortunately no one when we're here the current issue of vermont woman that we was revised in completely done over in one thousand in two thousand and three with the founding creative director and production director and is out today so we have a lot of kind of continuity over the years with staff rickey had ricky came back for another stint for three years as editor after margaret left in those things mean a lot having having staff our friend judy here is sitting next to me she was a very long time sales person and this is what was different about vermont woman from out woman from common woman in particular is that i want to go from a woman to be it had to be a business that was sustain a staff and and so we can make a living meager as it was an enormous to do that we needed to be able to sell advertising in the north be able to sell advertising you had to you had to be able to throw some of the advertisers off their game because starting from a woman in one thousand nine hundred five was just about as of just about a revolution because i wanted to be a paper that reached out to a very broad segment of the community i wanted i wanted to inspire and educate and i wanted to agitate and come in and for principles that woman was founded on which were some of those were pro choice and good women's health care and and many other many other principles daycare for women an equal right equal pay for equal work and so forth and so on they're worse when they say nothing about sexual abuse and domestic violence and so forth so we had a lot to talk about so in order to  from the vermont woman of the eighty's and is is that we would run and we did this by design we have one issue that would be a soft issue and the next issue would be a real hard hitter for example one issue and and so forth so would be one and then the next would be one on women in guns for example or women and aids aids was becoming a full blown problem during this particular period also and as you also may remember we were not a we were not able to put the word breast in an editorial context in vermont woman without losing twenty five percent of our advertising so it was dicey to try to keep the whole thing going yeah one thousand nine hundred eighty five it was like it was it i would like to  trump wearing five inch stilettos to get on the airplane at the white house to go to the houston flood zone and i thought she i thought about all those great women although there's been a good many wonderful running women's advocacy newspaper now in the country i got to thinking about why why would that be and the best that i can come up with is that for my it is an extraordinary state a wonderful state to have a newspaper like vermont woman that has been supported not enough but a lot through the years by advertisers that we've had a great staff that we've had women who have stepped up to the plate to help me to help launch the paper and to help sustain it through the years through donations one of them here one of them is here loud restless kind of warman there isn't vermont we're active bunch and i think for a hot woman speaks to that speaks to it speaks of vermont women vermont women writers are trying and i think have achieved to writing a certain kind of editorial mix of articles and features in every single issue and i can tell you that every single issue that comes out from out women to this day excites me from an idea in a blank page to a twenty to forty forty page newspaper it feels just  and amazing and so i think all of you sitting here and all vermonters for having set the stage for me to create from out woman and to keep it going for as long as i can and hopefully i'll find a nice young feisty woman with with with passion and writing skills that would really love to take this on and keep it going because i i think without it you would lose that voice that vermont woman it was the shoes that made me do it this is a little ditty that i wrote it was the shoes that made me do it september one thousand nine hundred seventy three new in town searching walked up church street for the first time some traffic busy bustling lone x was on a n w root beer joint fresh from fairfield county connecticut fresh from everything money fresh from the hustle from conspicuous consumerism it was the seventy's missing and searching for essential for the essential essence of life authenticity connection nature then i saw them birkenstocks hiking boots lots of them i looked up and then i saw the where women spirited strong confident open alive meant to same shoes kind gentle or gentle interesting compassion that struck me right in the heart a pivotal life changing moment i moved to vermont i never looked back it was all about the shoes really so we hope the awardees will stick around afterward so we can take lots of photographs first of all you you are all amazing i have to tell you i was the holdout i wanted to postpone and i cancel it i will never be real  because you're all here and i apologize for my e mails to my fellow committee members today we are honoring barbara jordan who has contributed so much as an exercise trainer and wellness counselor for older adults for more than thirty five years she's worked with seniors focusing on holistic approach is to wellness currently she teaches classes that u v m and at the miller cent in burlington until recently she also taught at the senior center and wake robin retirement community and her following from each of these places are here tonight in addition she's a national senior olympics medalist and has won numerous national championships and masters track and field as barbara was growing up in new jersey there were limited sports for girls because this was  and so sports were not mandated at all for girls however physical education was always her favorite ques although in high school there were no sports offered for girls she was an active major is that a sport so much she went on to springfield college in massachusetts where she got a degree in physical education and health played a lot of intermarriage intramural sports and was part of the gymnastics club and was president of the physical education majors club she moved to vermont in one thousand nine hundred sixty nine when paul her husband accepted a job as a physical education teacher and football coach at south burlington high school soon after that she was recruited to teach the newly formed south burlington high school gymnastics team barber coached the team to two state championships in one thousand nine hundred five a classmate from springfield college who was the track and field coach at uva m was working with the u v m physician on a research project titled the effect of training on insulin resistance of aging barbara was asked to take over as the trainer co ordinator of the study at the end of the study the participants didn't want to stop their exercise programs and that was the start of barbara's fitness and ageing class at u b m two of those students entered the first room monsignor games and that introduced barbara to a program that has been so important to her personally and professionally she saw it when i get older i want to join them starting in one nine hundred eighty seven she started training and has been with the vermont senior game since then in is currently vice president of monsignor games association and chairman of the games committee in one thousand nine hundred three at louisiana state university she competed in our first national senior games winning gold in the high jump she was hooked she's a senior olympics medalist and has won numerous national championships and masters track and field since she was sixty five she has held world records in the three hundred meter hurdles indoor pentathlon on for about four by one hundred way and four by four hundred relay she held u s records and the sixty meter and eighty meter hurdles and the sixty meter and two hundred meter dash is when she turned eighty and two thousand and fifteen barbara won the fifty meter on one hundred meter dash is and was on the four to four by a hundred relay team that broke the women's age eighty the eighty four world record at the national scene your games and m she's been inducted in six athletic calls of fame including the u s a t f master springfield college fair warning new jersey high school and south burlington high school all that all their athletic cal these are obviously remarkable accomplishments and worthy of the recognition we're giving her tonight but what is also drawn us to nominate an award barbara is that what she has added to the lives of those who have been fortunate to be her students in the senior fitness classes barbara's commitment terror students and their health is never ending she continually models the correct way to exercise size so that her students will get as much from their physical activity as possible she's always on the lookout for a better way to do x and exercise and will alter a method she is used for a long time if she feels it will improve her students performance recently for example we've gone to shake and wiggle as a way to include our lymph systems did you ever realize your lymph system needed exercise this is that just added to the list of organs and body parts that we activate she said all her sister students will participate in participate to the best of their ability and she thinks creatively about how they can get the most out of an exercise by their means using a chair rather than standing using a pillow to alleviate neck problems or needing help to utilize a particular exercise tool or implement corporates all kinds of exercise into the class stretching to introduce as many approaches as possible to help students find a method that  comfortable for them at all times barbara reminds us that our spirit our mind and our bodies are connected starting each class with a discussion of the word of the day she reminds us that our focus on thinking and feeling are as much a part of our successful exercise as is the moving of body parts the emphasis on the importance of spirit an attitude became evident most evident in two thousand and thirteen when barbara had two surgeries close together for breast and lung cancers she maintained her exercise routine routine and inspired her students with her positive attitude about her health her treatment and her fusible refusal to be discouraged by her new role as cancer patient barbara is always interested in the lives of her students and is supportive of those who are new to the class she notes events happening in her students lives and knowledge is their birthdays she worries if a student is absent from class for more than a day or so she encourages camaraderie among students and made sure there is a positive feeling among the classes a whole for those who have been involved in athletics during other times of their lives there they are there in a class led by a super athlete for the rest of us we have found a place where we can be respected just for showing up and are encouraged to stretch ourselves to be as healthy as we can recently on our class at the miller center barber has moved from introducing a word of the day to a saying  day these are words of wisdom from a variety of people from einstein to twain to ordinary citizens yesterday she quoted an unknown source a saying if you have passion you have purpose barbar passion certainly has led her to a purpose and has led her to encourage so many seniors primarily women to be stronger healthier and confident i can tell you frankly  are all i think we all come to the class in part to be inspired twice a week and i know from an email i received from her her son that her family has absorbed this inspiration her son that is a word that we use every day meaning when you're in that place in you and i'm in that place in me the universe resides and we're one and that's the essence of women and and the role here that i see tonight as connections and we mention spirit mind invitee and i think paul is betty here ok anybody else from springfield college yes i mean i grew up on the great and the logo on my chest in a tattoo spirit mind body and i think we all have that perspective and that has carried me through all my teaching and wherever i go to see the whole purge and everything so tonight i honor you know mama stay when you're in that place and you and i'm in that place and maybe there's just one of us and that's an incredible thing and i found that music somewhere and it's a song called nama stay and i took my tie g class and made it fit into the music so every morning when we start we start with  congratulations to you both to as you said in the beginning we have one spirit one mind in one body and we have the physical mental and spiritual aspect and  when we were younger our bodies were the thing and our circumstances where everything and as we grow older we kind of and i can talk from experience now my physical illness is not as good as it was i think i had to give up my competition after i set those records with flo who's sitting over here now and she's kind of taken over she's a year older than me so she gets the records before i do now and my so my body is not as strong as it used to be although i still work out and i still teach all my classes and i am so grateful for all of my students  want you to just stand up everybody here that's taken a class right now plenty stand up stand up i mean lenny was one of my first students when i started this program for the hospital i used to go around to all the this is fantastic i am i am so grateful for all of you people that have come here tonight this wonderful but let me is one hundred three years old and he's still doing my actor size and when i left the program i would give them a tape now a new skate and there's a couple of the new key people there too that great read of runs a great program and wave od and so when i left the place i left them with my d v d or cd so that they keep on going wait robin still uses there's once a week on saturdays and we just celebrated birthday with ruth partridge she was just one hundred years old and she's still doing the exercises so that's an incredible thing that people really understand that the body was made to move and you need to move it so what a comes next isis with us all the time so it's really great i just have so much fun with them and being with the senior games now how i got there was these two people that we're in the senior games we're having so much fun that i decided i would join them and it's been a great thing ever since because when i was younger the evolution of women who just didn't do that as you heard i started out as the major threat and then i i went through and springfield college and learned all kinds of activities and all different kinds of sports and the thing that title nine did was allow women to be able to do what men were doing otherwise we had to take a lower role out of there and so the evolution and where it's going now is tremendous i mean women can do anything that men can do and especially in the field of sports you just look at you can basketball team paul's favorite team what they can do i mean the basketball games are just great that in fact we like them better than the men and so women have come a long way and it's such a such a great thing so it's an honor to be a woman and so i thank you all for acknowledging that it's been a pleasure to be nominated thank the committee honoring me and  it's just makes connections and i think that's the most important part when we see each other and we honor each other we know that we're this one body in this great world ellen mentioned a few little  phrases that we take and the latest right that i really like kids and i think that when people teach when i talk you know in my classes i taught holistic health at the university and i was taking all the different pieces and putting them together into one whole and one time i was teaching about i think metaphors and stories and little saying really helped to learn and that's the best way to teach sometimes you can't teach what actually is but it could be like something you know it's like a metaphor so my first experience with really understanding this whole was i used the iceberg as a metaphor that if you can visualize an iceberg floating in the water in the antarctic and you see it there's only a portion of it that sticks out and the rest of it is floating in the water and so i was explaining that to my students that this is the iceberg and we just see the tip of the iceberg and it's was underneath the iceberg that makes up the iceberg and we're all like that and so that you have water can be either liquid gas or solid depending upon the temperature and it's all energy and vibration and so one chemistry student that was taking my class said did you know that water is the only thing when it freezes it flows i said no i didn't know that and just sort of put it on the back burner and on the way home from class that night i got this great insight you know how you get that aha moment sometimes and it was like wow whatever created me supports me and i don't ever have to worry about anything and that was the greatest insight that i had about how the world works and this little saying that we just said the other day  was about a drop of water and we're not a drop of water in the ocean but we're the entire ocean in a single drop and if you can remember that that you're part of this great grand  things and we're all connected and we support each other and and love each other that's what it's all about whether you're doing something physical or something mental and as i said before  physical in this is kind of waning my mind sometimes i forget a lot of stuff like names of people and things like that but my spirit is getting stronger and i think that that's what happens as you age that you have this great spirit and it's really  kind of fun it is i've had a couple bouts of cancer and how you look at it and you can either be grumpy or sad that doesn't help your body or you can say it is what it and you deal with it so that's how i choose to live my life and i you mentioned being an inspiration and i i think that that's how people grow and learn if they're inspired so how do you get inspired and i think that one story that i really like one of my favorite stories is a story about a person who was wondering what these people three people were doing laying bricks it's a story about these three masons you may have heard of it and he came up to the first person and said what are you doing and he said i'm laying bricks what the heck do you think i'm doing and he went on to the next and he said and what are you doing he said i'm trying to make a living i got to keep my family healthy and he came up to the third person and he said and what are you doing he said i'm building a cathedral and so it's your attitude that determines your altitude and where you go and how far you go how you see things ok and i'm going to leave you with one thing that inspired me i get inspired by listening to music and karen drucker was a person who wrote this song is called the power of women it's the power of women united we stand we're making a difference when we join hands it's the power of women who will heal the world every color every race through the ages it's been shown that women have compassion and show the way to a world filled with peace and love and that's where i hope that we're all going thank you barbara thank you barbara for bringing this huge audience  mercy connections executive director dolly fleming has over forty years because of experience within the nonprofit arena dolly served twelve years at the united way of change in county and multiple roles she's been a consultant trainer advocate and facilitator for nonprofits throughout new england dolly has served as executive director to such organizations as the vermont foundation for children and families mobius the mentoring movement community of vermont elders council on aging institute for program development at trinity college of vermont learning innovations of vermont dolly loves poetry reading nature family and the privilege of being a steward mission driven organizations she has a big beautiful and extended family and lives with her beloved partner francis in burlington of her career working with communities organizations and individuals men women boys and girls dolly says i feel i have been called to help people rediscover their loveliness and potential as many have forgotten or never learned how truly wonder filled they are or can become it's my pleasure to introduce dolly f so barbara i need to would go a little bit more at this point in my life so i need to sign up for class and you know us government has never been the same since you left connecticut and never comrade activists and robin if you know of any worms send them my way because i need all the donations i can get from her seat connection thank you i am usually the one best stowing honors upon upon others and not the reception so it's a little uncomfortable for me but i was coached to be another they don't say hello how are you and they say they say how are the children that's the first thing how are the children so let's play with that and apply it to international women's day and women here in burlington vermont so as i greet you i would like to say how are the young baby girls how are the adolescent girls how are the teenagers how are the young adult women the unemployed women the women with addictions and trauma and mental illness the women without hope the women in the nursing homes the women in the jail one hundred forty tonight five miles from here the women left out of the priesthood the women at the food shelf the girls in the streets the caregivers the women who are trafficked are transgender sisters how are that women regrettably when we ask how are the women our answers can be rather disturbing there are so many problems sexism massage any discrimination gender bias ages i'm economic gap unbelievable trafficking but like rabbi cushion and we can list a million litany of problems but rabbi says what's even more problematic than all those things i listed is the lack of will and conviction to do anything about it to fall into a complacency of accepting well that's how it is you know one step at a time you know we're always going to have women who are traffic we're always going to have women in a sub quality nursing home kind of accept it but what rabbi cushion or says is what if we organize that compassion and generosity to make a difference and the lack of will to do that is more problematic than all the litany of the challenges justice and change don't just happen it is the result of constant collective hard work not just random acts of kindness but strategic acts of intervention prevention correction systemic change vigilant advocacy individual and organized in gauged and informed citizens who read from our woman and keep our our sa polished and informed public structures and support i'm fortunate right now because i have the privilege of working at mercy connections which might be considered one of those public structures and it's all about empowering women helping women discover their loveliness their potential their dignity and to accrete achieve greater degrees of self sufficiency and what a privilege it is to do that what an talk about international women just courageous with conviction and principle and action and one of the founders said that proof of love is deed and that's what the sisters of mercy do is transform their love into action so it mercy we have the responsibility in the privilege of helping women who are in jail when they come out strive to stay out of jail so it costs forty five to eighty thousand dollars a year to house a woman who's in jail and it costs us less than five thousand dollars a year to help her stay in the community and reduce risk behavior and we do that because women in the community come together and decide and choose to have a relationship a mentoring relationship and help that woman ninety eight percent of the women in jail are poor most are victims of trauma and abuse and addiction is joe the right place hell no so we are a part of a movement to try to reduce incarceration and reduce jail as the strategy in my saying people are blameless no but the band with of being able to make choices has been eroded it's it's it's really difficult so we work with these wonderful women who are coming out and reframing their lies and transforming their lives we work with aspiring entrepreneur hundred eighty nine the women's small business program was founded with sido and trinity college and it still exists now so we help women make informed decisions about owning an operating a business we also work with women and men but predominately women who are poor and suffering suffering the tyranny of poverty and how absolutely challenging that is and we want work with immigrants new americans so that is the privilege that we have at mercy connections empowering women i'm going to read  i like to take poems and then reef redo them in my way so david white is one of my mentors a poet and a writer and he wrote a poem called what interests me and i've played around with it and written my own and and here's a mini part of it it doesn't interest me if you're a democrat republican progressive or independent it doesn't interest me if you have a college degree or many a title a portfolio or a trust fund it doesn't even interest me if you're conservative or liberal i want to know if you care about the dignity of women if your heart is awakened to the joys and sufferings of others it doesn't interest me if you have a country club membership or a schedule flight to the bahamas i want to know if you care that our jails are overpopulated that women have food for their families a legitimate seat at the policy table a decent way to get to work on a cold winter's day i want to know if you're prepared to work in the world to change the harsh edges for those living in the margins if you're willing to live in advocate day by day with the uncertainty of victory but the sure conviction of cause i watched to know as we continually discover that the present system is irreconcilable with our vision that you will stand up with a lamp and that our sights will not be diminished to fit the status quo i want to know that we will all band together and that banding together and standing together is more important than branding and divisiveness i want to know if you're willing and prepared when you think we're all too timid that you encourage us to be bold and when you think we are to fear that your counsel softens never our sense of justice but our self righteousness i want to know if you care about our sister so there's a little poem that i often say at our mercy connections graduations when people are trying to discover their of loveliness and their confidence and half is says how did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all its beauty how did the rose ever open its heart and give to the world all its beauty it fell the encouraged men of light against its being otherwise we all become too afraid the encouraged men of light against its being what if we as women our allies let our light shine and encourage others so they can blossom oh an importer says reminded me that the presence of a hopeful beautiful character can be contagious and revelation revolutionize a whole town well i say let us be the light against each other's  ok we're going to pay a brief tribute to censure too to run a burke she is the originator of the need to movement and we have a little video that we're going to show you with jeff's help after a little introduction by me to run a bark as a social activist and the original creator of the me to movement this birth as also a single mom who grew up reading authors when berg was fourteen she joined the twenty first century youth leadership movement which trained young people to be grassroots community organizers her first project was in one thousand nine hundred nine organizing against donald trump who was taking out full page ads in new york city calling for the death penalty for the central park five a case of five teenagers wrongfully convicted convicted of rape who spent time in jail until a serial rapist confessed to the crime in two thousand and three she co founded just be a nonprofit organization focused on the health well being and wholeness of young women of color to run a burke came up with the phrase me too in two thousand and six while working with young women just be in as a way to respond to the experiences they shared with her they all shared the same experiences meet to to run a burke is currently senior director of the nonprofit girls for gender equity in brooklyn new york in december the times magazine included her as one of the silent breakers named two thousand and seventeen person of the while using her new media platform to promote the meet to movement to run a burke is also working on expanding the me to web site into a comprehensive resource tool for survivors here's a short clip speaking of her speaking about her work hour event yeah we didn't fight her but she was not able to make it and i think empowerment with empathy what i think a great a great thought for us to hold on to their souls i just wanted to ask if there are people in the audience who might like we do have a couple of mikes that we can pass around if anyone has something to say about how the me too movement has affected you  i'm very happy to be here but i don't live in burlington i live in carinthia for mom and spent a great deal of my adult life in europe i worked in the field of human rights and reconstruction after war in bosnia for many years i've worked on a different projects with the world women's world to some and foundation and i'm completing now the of the challenges of life after war and during war including trafficking rape camps but also about cultural disintegration  about finding bones in the forest after war all the many things we don't think about when we think about war but right now i'm busily and quietly writing in korean and a few weeks ago i opened up a book of poems i wrote actually maybe twenty years ago and they're all called she p dedicated to all the she's all the over the world on there are yes elements of being a woman so i thought i would like to just share this one with you she has tried to be more than she is standing tall or straight or puffing out her chest like some kind of rooster keeping others oh the wrong poem i did this a few weeks ago up here parts of herself but now this is maybe before she has tried but she would like to try she does not know can she does not know how she is like water like silk like the earth opening at her depths and mystery not to be solved or disturbed she does not know because she has an ordinary woman leading an ordinary life with an extraordinary mind and she has not been able to match the two she does not know because she does not have a full length mirror reflecting on all sides like the many petal lotus the kind of deceptive mirrors and soft lights you find in  or hiring and london where women fat or thin look more beautiful at that moment more exquisite than at any other time though you know it is the line because we  prove what we are and not rather than for what we are even though we are now told otherwise she does not know her own beauty because she does not have a scalpel does she have a kaleidoscope to appreciate the angles of changing perception mutating in a dance melody rhythm truth fear courage and tangled in robust vines may the variations on the theme never ant and always contradict in unexpected ways she does not know because like most of us she cannot feel it in her skin and the animal of her and the coursing of her blood behind her face or in her belly where dignity is felt or in her heart  know because she still thinks she should be not who she is but someone else someone more intelligent more fertile more luscious more independent we smoother so much kinder and so much more she feels deficient to she turns the pages of magazines or sits in the cinema looking at women most of whom have eagerly sacrificed themselves to the gods animals in a slaughter to be what they are not and never will be but the illusion is affective and in the end creates a massive sprees of the spirit i have seen this woman now working for years to come into herself like clams coming into the gate like the brook feeding the pond like the slow side thing of an hunger sums from some hungry desolate place so that she screams even when she speaks gently and i know the burden of not having been heard of not having been helped in the whole of her not quite like she knows it but i have walked so close close and i can say she has worked hard worked well and just now the signs are showing the moon is  buds are insisting and i know i know she is traveling from a long winter into the first days of spring thank you for sharing that so all in closing i just wanted to say i'm very encouraged by the me too movement i think it's really struck a little spark in all of us to move forward and i know the women of this community will do just that so as we close please remember our tip jars which are over there are donation jars  table so if you like to contribute to keeping this event going each year we would really appreciate it and it's our hope that today's stories leave you feeling inspired and each story strengthens and enriches us all we're sisters we're strong community and we stand up for each other thank you so much for coming