DYLAN COUR
STAFF WRITER
March has long been recognized as Women’s History month. The celebration started as a local festival in Santa Rosa, California in 1978. Just two years later, a group of women’s groups and historians successfully lobbied for national recognition. In February of that year, President Jimmy Carter issued a presidential proclamation declaring the week of March 8th as National Women’s History Week.
This continued for the next seven years until in 1987, Congress passed a bill that designated March as Women’s Month. Since 1995, the president has issued an annual proclamation during the month stating once more, it is Women’s History Month.
To celebrate women’s history on campus many groups do a variety of things. For example, Kappa Iota, our local sorority on campus, hosted their annual Luxury (Lux) Liner. The event took place on Friday, Mar. 15.
“Luxury Liner is our annual philanthropy event, and we choose a different theme every year. This year we chose Peace, Love and Rock and Roll because we were inspired by the feminist and peace movements from the 70’s,” said Rose Cyburt (’20).
“We host Lux Liner around this time every year, while trying to avoid it conflicting with other events. It conveniently worked out to be during Women’s Month so we also hosted a donations drive, as well as multiple sisterhood events to raise awareness on domestic violence,” said Cyburt.
In order to gain interest in the event, KI brings in outside forms of entertainment as well. This year, the band Political Lizard came and played live, and they also brought in a magician.
Lux Liner is not only an opportunity to celebrate women’s month, but doubles as K.I.’s formal.
“We open the event to campus because we believe that a formal event should be open to everyone. We like to be as inclusive as we can,” said Megan Finkbeiner (’19).
Because this is the largest philanthropy event of the year for Kappa Iota, all of the proceeds for the event go to R.I.S.E.
“R.I.S.E. Advocacy embodies KI’s values, so it was really easy for us to choose a philanthropy to support especially since we are local,” said Natasha Netzley (’21).
R.I.S.E. Advocacy, – previously known as Women’s Aid Shelter of Gratiot, Isabelle, and Clare Counties, recently changed their name to be even more inclusive.
“One of the reasons for the recent name change was to remind the community that R.I.S.E. Advocacy provides services for people of all genders and sexualities. They are a fantastic resource and a crucial establishment in our community for helping survivors get back on their feet,” said Holly Barnum (’20).
“R.I.S.E. offers numerous free and confidential services from legal advocacy to counseling to emergency housing. R.I.S.E. Advocacy also educates in the community to decrease sexual victimization and intimate partner violence,” said Barnum.
“On top of Lux Liner, we also run a supply drive every year to collect different resources that the shelter is in need of that are not usually thought of, such as toothpaste, feminine products and clothes. We also like to take part in the campus event See Spot Run to aid R.I.S.E. where ever we can” said Netzley.
