Dahlia: A roaring success for women

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

The Women's Foundation of Colorado kicked off its 2005 Gender Matters Luncheon with a bang as the powerful words of Helen Reddy's classic blasted over the sound system:

I am woman, hear me roar

In numbers too big to ignore

And I know too much to go back an' pretend

'Cause I've heard it all before

And I've been down there on the floor

No one's ever gonna keep me down again

There wasn't a more powerful way to welcome more than 1,400 women and girls - and a few supportive men - to the 16th annual benefit at the Adam's Mark Hotel, featuring award-winning actress and women's rights activist Kathy Najimy as keynote speaker.

Perhaps you remember Najimy as Sister Mary Patrick in the hilarious films Sister Act and Sister Act 2, or you caught her starring opposite Kirstie Alley as Olive on the television series Veronica's Closet. Maybe you saw her off-Broadway, Obie-winning performance in The Kathy & Mo Show with sidekick Mo Gaffney, later reprised as two specials on HBO.

What you may not know is that when Najimy isn't performing, she's working hard to advance equality for women and girls by supporting women's organizations and leading events such as 2004's March for Women in Washington, D.C.

That year she was named Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year.

Najimy recounted how she became an activist at 12 after years of watching the men in her family retreat to the patio after a big meal to joke and smoke cigars while the women cleaned up.

At 14, she petitioned and got her "sexist" junior high school dress code changed. At 15, she learned about a class that taught boys how to cook and do laundry called Bachelor Survival - "suggesting that they only needed to know how to do those lovely chores while they were bachelors," laughed Najimy.

"We picketed the class until they changed the name back to good ol' Home Ec for everyone."

Najimy took her first women's lib class in high school. In college, she majored in theater and minored in women's studies.

Later, she said, "I, along with hundreds of thousands of other women, threw myself into the battle for the right for women to choose what to do with our own bodies and the right to design our own lives."

Najimy spoke about other women's issues, including equal pay for equal work and child care. Then she told attendees how she responds to the questions "What can I do?" and "How can I contribute?"

"I always answer with my favorite line from my favorite film, Julia: 'We only can do today what we can do today.' Today you - the Women's Foundation of Colorado and those supporting (it) - are doing it for us.

"You could instead easily be watching a Desperate Housewives marathon or you could be at the Cherry Creek mall, but you are here supporting the great work this foundation is doing," she said.

"Kathy's presentations inspire her audiences to use their talents in a way that will lead them to making a positive change," said Gretchen Gagel McComb, who took over as president and CEO of the Women's Foundation of Colorado in January.

"The foundation develops partnerships and creates resources statewide to advocate for women around issues such as the wage gap, affordable child care, health care and economic development," she said. "We invest hundreds of thousands of dollars every year in nonprofit organizations throughout Colorado that are directly helping girls and women achieve economic self-sufficiency."

Emcee Brooke Wagner from CBS 4 News mentioned audience members who contribute to positive change, including foundation co-founder, inaugural foundation president and honorary 2005 luncheon chairwoman Dottie Lamm; Gender Matters Luncheon co-chairwomen Kathy Hagan Brown of Hagan Communications, whose daughter, Emily Rundles, was one of 20 girls from St. Mary's Academy who volunteered at the fete, and Heather Lurie of the White House Project, which promotes the election of a woman as president of the United States; former foundation President Marla Williams; national White House Project chairwoman and former Women's Foundation Chairwoman Marie Wilson; Mayor John Hickenlooper; former District Attorney Bill Ritter; state Rep. Betty Boyd; City Council President Elbra Wedgeworth; Carol Burt and Ray Hilliard; and Joy Johnson, chairwoman of the foundation's board of trustees, whose daughter, Vivian Carlson, joined her at the girl-empowering affair.

Other girl-power promoters and trustees, many of whom were committee members, included Mary Sissel, who was recognized for her work as a mentor; Eva Vyas, Elisa Canova, Tanaye Carroll, Lakotah Doi, Kathleen Ech, Maggie Fox, Nancy Hartley, Kip Hughes, Barbara Ipsaro, Christine Johnson, Shelley Krovitz, Kelly Ladyga, Valerie Lee, Joanna Little, Bonnie McCloskey, Jane Moy, Dr. Dean Prina, Tatiana Settles, Mary Hurley Stuart, Wynona Sullivan, Amanda Toy, Renita Wolf and Walt DeHaven. DeHaven, general manager of CBS 4, and Dana Hamilton of Archstone-Smith served as corporate committee co-chairmen.

Corporate partners for the luncheon also included Comcast, Gay & Lesbian Fund for Colorado, Holme Roberts & Owen and Wells Fargo.

For more information about the Women's Foundation of Colorado, call 303-285-2960 or visit www.wfco.org.

Dahlia Jean Weinstein is the society writer. weinsteind@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2882