Jennifer Tool Holladay on 8/28/2008
The White House Project celebrated it's 10th Anniversary at the Denver Newspaper Agency on Wednesday, August 27 with many distinguished guests from all over the country, including at least four Girl Scouts from Highlands Ranch.
Mcee'd by Bertha Lynn from Channel 7 News, the event included speakers Marie Wilson, The White House Project founder and president, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, the first female Governor to win re-election, and Boulder city Councilwoman Angelique Espinoza, the first Latina councilwoman for Boulder.
The girls were celebrated as the pipeline of female leadership and received many accolades and lots of pictures were taken of the four girls: Christiana Holladay, Taylor Wubbena, Chandler Sasaoka, and Jillian Holladay. The girls learned from Marie Wilson when she said, "The women of America are like government in exile and we must put the government in exile in power." One of the themes of The White House Project is to "Add women and change everything". The scouts took home stickers with that theme and wanted to put them up in their bedrooms as a reminder of the night and their own empowerment.
From their literature: "The White House Project works to make women leaders a vital, visible, permanent part of American politics, business, and culture." The speakers agreed with this philosophy, citing specifically Councilwoman Espinoza who ran for office because she had received training from The White House Project.
After the event, the girls were excited to share that they want to be leaders, and took in example the mothers with them leading Girl Scouts, the recent campaign of Hillary Clinton, and noted that someone like them could be the first female President. Two days after the event, Senator John McCain (R-presumptive Presidential candidate) announced that he picked Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate for the office of Vice President, only the second time a woman has appeared as a national candidate on a major party ticket. This nomination has re-inforced, only two days later, how much women can accomplish.
For more information, contact thewhitehouseproject.org.
