DEAR COUNCIL FRIEND

This week the Greater Grand Rapids Women's History Council will gather its members and friends for a reception to celebrate new discoveries about local women's history and to end Women's History Month in style. We hope you will consider supporting our efforts. We operate on a shoestring and would put your tax-deductible dues to good work! You could join in person at the Women's City Club this Thursday, the 29th, or scroll down here for information. An anonymous donor will once again buy new and renewing members a glass of wine! If you can, let us know you're coming: 616-454-2425 or info@ggrwhc.org.

During March we can never share everything we have learned over the past year, but we try for a sampling. Perhaps you have attended one or both of this month's programs featuring the roles played by area rural and urban women in agricultural politics over the past century. This Thursday former Press food editor Jaye Beeler and photographer Dianne Carroll Burdick will treat us to a sneak peek at their upcoming book: Tasting and Touring Michigan's Homegrown Food: A Culinary Road Trip. Theywill introduce us to some of the fascinating women they met on the road. And we will toast the Girls Scouts on their centennial!

We will interrupt party and program just long enough to ask members to approve a slate of four candidates to join the GGRWHC board of directors. As we ready to celebrate GGRWHC's 25th anniversary during 2013, we hope that you will consider helping out. We would love to talk with you about ways you could support the mission of the Council, the preservation and dissemination of area women's history. Join us on Thursday and learn more about our efforts!

Cordially,

Jo Ellyn Clarey

President

P.S. Read below about board candidates Cindy Dorman, Sharon Hanks, Jill Straub, and Ruth Van Stee. Please join us Thursday to meet them!

GGRWHC 2012 Slate of Candidates for the Board of Directors

Cindy Dorman's wide-ranging interests are first reflected in her educational background. Since her degree in Liberal Studies from GVSU, emphases in Archaeology and Anthropology, she has made forays into environmental science, sociology, anthropology and philanthropy; and she recently completed coursework for an M.A. in Philanthropy and Development from Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. Cindy's career ranges from administrative support to work with the developmentally disabled, writing, program management, and fundraising. Currently director of Grants and Foundation Relations at Aquinas College, she is also engaged in the college's strategic planning initiative. Much of Cindy's community involvement has focused on women's issues and organizations, including Liz's House, Dwelling Place of Grand Rapids; Susan G. Komen Foundation, Grand Rapids Affiliate; Ronald Yaw Guild, Blodgett Memorial Hospital; Kent County Special Olympics; Rays of Hope for Haiti; and Charlton Park Historic Museum.

In 2000 Sharon Hanks began The Write Words, her writing and editorial business. Armed with degrees in English from GRCC and journalism from MSU, Sharon worked as staff reporter at the Grand Rapids Press and as a senior writer at Amway. For over 25 years, she has created copy for such clients as Steelcase, Herman Miller, Farmers Insurance, the Grand Rapids Bar Association, the Detroit Free Press, Rapid Growth Media, Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, North End Community Ministry, Metro Health Hospital, and Davenport University. A Grand Rapids native, Sharon has also taught writing at GVSU and business communications at WMU. She has been a trustee of the Grand Rapids Historical Society since 2004 and was one of the first volunteer citizen journalists for the Rapidian when it was established in 2009. This online publication has been a great avenue for posting news articles promoting community programs and events.

Jill Straub holds a master's degree in Public History from WMU and is working on another in Library and Information Science, concentrating on Archives through the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. For this degree, Jill is a distance intern for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, processing metadata for a nineteenth-century watercolor collection by American painter David J. Kennedy. She has a particular interest in American nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century social history and will pursue research on pioneer women and early cooking. In 2005, Jill co-published an NPR documentary, "A Fruitful Land," which chronicled the history of fruit farming in southwestern Michigan. When her graduate study is finished, Jill will resume work on a collection of Civil War letters between Sparta wife Mary Noble and her husband, David. Jill has already presented papers on the letter collection at the Great Lakes History Conference and for the Civil War Roundtable. Jill has worked at Aquinas College since 2000.

Ruth Van Steewas born and raised on the southeast side of Grand Rapids and attended Calvin College, graduating in 1971 with a history major. She and her husband Don taught school in Wisconsin before moving back to Michigan. While raising four children Ruth was active on the PTA and school boards of the parental school her children attended, as well as on church and council committees. After thirteen years out of the for-pay economy, Ruth began working in 1992 for the Grand Rapids Public Library in children's areas downtown and in several branches, and then for the Local History department, where she has now worked for nearly ten years, specializing in African American collections. From 1999 to 2009, Ruth served as the paid administrative assistant, secretary, and newsletter editor for the Grand Rapids Historical Society.