March 8, 2020
The Pinnacle
International Women’s Day, a global celebration of the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women,
has been observed since 1911.
The Toledo Opera Guild, working in partnership with Women of Toledo and several other organizations, celebrates International Women’s Day on March 8th from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM at the Pinnacle in Maumee. Tickets ($35) include a luncheon, at noon, with informative speakers.
The gathering will also showcase educational booths, activities for young women, entertainment, and generational photos. Demonstrating that an equal world is an enabled world, lead by individual actions, challenging stereotypes, fighting bias, broadening perceptions and celebrating the achievements of women.
The 2020 theme #EachforEqual – Celebrating Ordinary Women doing Extraordinary Things brings together NW Ohio organizations honoring generations of women who have worked toward equality.
Speakers:
- Zobaida Falah a millennial, social entrepreneur with a ‘pay it forward’ structure for her product, The Cure Bar
- Teresa Fedor, Ohio State Senator
- Bina Joe, PH.D., FAHA, FAPS (CV) Distinguished UT Professor specializing in hypertension in women
- Diane Larson – News Anchor, 13ABC
- Teniece Temple – sexual abuse survivor and activist
Participating Organizations:
Toledo Chapter of The Links, Incorporated, 1-Heart Foundation, The League of Women Voters, Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, Toledo Rotary, The Matriots, Toledo Women’s Bar Association, ProMedica Toledo Hospital and Toledo Children’s Hospital Auxiliary, Women of Toledo and the Zepf Center
Sponsors:
5/3 Bank, Ragazza, M-K Beauty, Savage and Associates – Russ Karban, 13 ABC, I-Heart Toledo, Toledo City Paper, Lamar Outdoor Advertising and The Pinnacle.
Gather a group to purchase a table, invite your children and grandchildren and applaud what women have achieved. Tickets can be purchased at: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4472008 or by mailing a check to Toledo Opera Guild, 9016 Cedar Bend Dr. Sylvania, Ohio 43560.
For further information: www.toledooperaguild.org / 419-461-0155
Speakers
Emcee: Meaghan Mick
Emcee: Meaghan MickMeaghan is the host of Buckeye Country CKY and on the air on MOJO in the morning on 92.5 WVKS. Born and raised in NW Ohio, she is a huge hockey fan and sports purple hair.
Teniece Temple
sexual abuse survivor and activist
Taniece Temple is a survivor of sex trafficking, mental, physical and other sexual abuse. Relying on personal experiences, she uses her knowledge to help others who have been trafficked, sexually abused, homeless, or victims of trauma through her nonprofit support group, Pretty, Loved, and Destined, which was founded in 2018. Her mission is to revive hope within communities, and Teniece aims “to be a voice, a shoulder, and a mentor to any girl who is in need of me.” A licensed cosmetologist, Teniece currently studies Social Work and aspires to lead people to appropriate law enforcement and mental-health services.
Zobaida Falah
The Cure Bar.
Zobaida Falah is a social entrepreneur who integrates social need into market sustainable business practice. As the Founder and CEO of CURE, a lifestyle health brand geared towards making healthy taste good, Zobaida creates consumer packaged goods that use superfoods, such as The Cure Bar, which includes the beneficial black seed ingredient. She also uses her social media platforms to raise money for orphans, refugees, and people experiencing hunger throughout the world, supporting economic developments and donating to projects that alleviate world hunger.
Diane Larson
Anchor, 13ABC
For more than 30 years, Diane Larson has brought you the news that affects your life, your health, your wealth, your kids and your community. Along with Lee Conklin, Diane co-anchors 13 abc Action News at Five, Six and Eleven. Together, they’ve held a successful on-air partnership for 20 years.
Diane is a journalist who has won several awards for her reporting and a number of honors for her contributions to the community and to broadcasting. She was awarded the Golden Touchstone Award by the Toledo Press Club, inducted into the Ohio Associated Press Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and selected as a YWCA Milestones Business Honoree. Additionally, Diane won an Emmy for her behind-the-scenes television special on the traveling Broadway musical “The Lion King” and won the 2017 Emmy for Daytime Newscast. Among her more memorable assignments, Diane has moderated a number of political debates that were broadcast live on C-SPAN and has also traveled extensively for her work, including a trip to China and the opportunity to report from the red carpet at the Oscars.
With regard to community, Daine has raised money for several local organizations like the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, The Muscular Dystrophy Association, Taste of the Nation Toledo, which helps to eliminate childhood hunger, and Adopt America Network, an organization that works to find homes for hard-to-place children and many others.
Teresa Fedor
State Senator Ohio
State Senator Teresa Fedor, a Democratic member of the Ohio Senate, representing the 11th District, returned to the Chamber, where she previously served from 2002-2010, following eight years as Representative for Ohio’s 45th and 47th House Districts.
Senator Fedor has introduced legislation that focuses on curtailing cyberbullying, honors literacy and educational attainment among children, creates physical and health education standards in Ohio’s schools, requires background checks for volunteer coaches, ensures that military children are given the same educational opportunities as other children, and provides funding for bullying prevention education.
Fedor has unprecedented success in passing bills to fight human trafficking, including legislation in 2010 that made human trafficking a stand-alone felony. In 2012, then-Representative Fedor passed The Safe Harbor Act, followed by the End Demand Act, which tackles market-driven demand for human trafficking by increasing penalties for those purchasing sex from minors. Now, Fedor serves with the Ohio Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Commission, continuing to fight for Ohio’s most vulnerable.
Her efforts also focus on medical, mental health, dental, and vision care for all Ohioans, as well as establishing mandatory sexual harassment training for all state employees. Her resolutions have called for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency to declare Lake Erie impaired, and allowing voters to decide on establishing universal access to Pre-K for all of Ohio’s children.
Bina Joe, PH.D., FAHA, FAPS (CV)
UT Distinguished University
Professor & Chair
Dr. Bina Joe is an executive leader, Distinguished University Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, and the founding Director of the Center for Hypertension and Precision Medicine at the University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences.
Obtaining a formal education in India, she is a Fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA), a senior professional silver heart member, a Fellow of the American Physiological Society (APS) and has served on the leadership committee of the Council on Hypertension of the AHA. Dr. Joe is also a longstanding member of the Editorial Board of Hypertension and Editor-in-Chief of the APS Journal, Physiological Genomics.
For the past two decades, Joe has been instrumental in leading Hypertension Research, now recognized as a Spotlight Research Area of Unique Distinction. The Joe lab has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, many documenting pioneering discoveries, and she is the first Asian-American recipient of several prestigious awards concerning hypertension research. Internationally, she continues to serve on multiple review panels, organizing several international conferences in the USA and UK, while engaged in a multitude of executive leadership activities to promote research specializing in hypertension in women.
Participating Organizations
Toledo Opera Guild
The Toledo Opera Guild helps to financially support the Toledo Opera by creating connections with community members and businesses to enhance life within the Toledo area. Toledo Opera conducts education outreach programs that reach more than 23,000 students each year, from pre-school through high school, throughout NW Ohio and SE Michigan. Additionally, the organization hosts a resident artist program and free pre-opera discussions that are open to the public. toledooperaguild.org.
Women of Toledo
Established in 2014, Inclusive for Women Inc. – Women of Toledo (WOT) is a nonprofit organization serving the Greater Toledo community, advocating for diversity and inclusion with a focus on economic empowerment. The educational organization creates new ways for people (and especially for women) from different cultural, racial, educational and socio-economic backgrounds to identify common goals and work towards constructive coexistence. The organization offers meaningful, women-focused educational programs, advocacy, economic empowerment forums, connection services, and mentoring and peer-networking services that
elevate quality of life and social progress.
womenoftoledo.org
Toledo Chapter of The Links, Incorporated
Established in 1946, The Links is an international, not-for-profit organization comprised of more than 16,000 professional women of color in 288 chapters located in 41 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, and the United Kingdom. One of the nation’s oldest and largest volunteer service organizations, The Links is committed to enriching, sustaining and ensuring the culture and economic survival of African Americans and other persons of African ancestry. The group focuses on five facets: Services to Youth, The Arts, National Trends and Services, International Trends and Services, and Health and Human Services. linksinc.org.
The Toledo Chapter of The Links was established in 1972, and currently has 32 active members and 22 alumnae, all committed to carrying out the organization’s vision/mission to develop and implement transformational programming that impacts lives in the Toledo community. toledolinks.org.
Girls Scouts of Western Ohio
The Girl Scouts, formed in Savannah, Georgia in 1912, has since grown into a global and girl-led leadership movement with more than 2.6 million members and 50 million alumni, worldwide. Girl Scouts build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.
Girl Scouts of Western Ohio (GSWO) was founded in 2008 following the merger of four Girl Scout councils in southwest, central, and northwest Ohio. GSWO is the sixth largest council in the nation and the largest council in Ohio, serving the Cincinnati, Dayton, Lima, and Toledo regions.
GSWO builds female leaders by engaging girls in the Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE), which focuses on three program processes: all activities are girl-led, cooperative, and experiential. The GSLE devotes time to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM); entrepreneurship; life skills; and the outdoors. gswo.org
1-Heart Foundation
1-Heart Foundation aims to inspire hope, alleviate human suffering, and provide the best care to every heart patient by using the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. The organization promotes better services for uninsured patients who require cardiac care and looks to equip institutions with updated technology to enhancd more effective care. With 1-Heart, no heart patient is denied treatment based on race, religion or a family’s ability to pay. 1-heart.org.
Zepf Center
Zepf Center, opened as the Elizabeth A. Zepf Community Mental Health Center in 1974, is named after a Toledo resident active in mental health service development. Originally, the agency was primarily concerned with post-psychiatric hospitalization treatment. Now, Zepf Center, a local nonprofit, provides behavioral health and vocational services to youth and adults with severe and persistent mental illness throughout Lucas County. Creating hope and recovery through integrated person-centered services, programs include child and adolescent psychiatric, medical, residential, and therapy services, as well as career development opportunities. zepfcenter.org.
The Matriots
The Matriots is an Ohio nonpartisan political action committee founded in May 2017 by a group who participated in the Women’s March on Washington and then decided to launch an effort to put more women into political leadership to ensure economic justice for women in Ohio. Thanks to successful fundraising campaigns, the Matriots PAC has created a sustainable organization, hired an executive director and funded female candidates who advance policies that impact the lives of women. Today, full membership includes more than 1,100 women and men throughout the state and across the political spectrum. matriotsohio.com.
Rotary Club of Toledo
The Rotary Club of Toledo is a professionally diverse fellowship of civic-minded Toledo leaders engaged in service to the local and world communities. The Club provides opportunities for volunteer contributions, business development networking, and hands-on activities through six service committees which are focused on community, youth, vocational, disability, water, and international service. toledorotary.org
The League of Women Voters
The League of Women Voters (LWV) was born of the suffragist movement. Shortly after the passing of the 19th amendment, the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) proposed the creation of a league to educate, advance and protect voter rights. The LWV is a nonpartisan organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, focused on empowering voters and protecting democracy. Today, there are three Northwest Ohio Leagues (Bowling Green, Perrysburg Area and Toledo-Lucas County) that sponsor candidate forums and public informational meetings, publish voter guides, provide new citizens with voter registration information at naturalization ceremonies, participate in the annual National Voter Registration Day and provide research on issues to inform voters. lwvtoledo.org.
Toledo Women’s Bar Association
The Toledo Women’s Bar Association mission is to maintain the honor and integrity of the legal profession; advance the position of and opportunities available to women attorneys in order to more accurately reflect the role of women in a democratic society; ensure women attorneys’ participation in bar associations; monitor the legislation, policies and practices affecting the status of women and opportunities available to women; promote and provide continuing legal education in areas of current interest to the community and, in particular, to the legal profession; and to gather and disseminate information of interests to women. tw3sba.wildapricot.org.
ProMedica Toledo Hospital and Toledo Children’s Hospital Auxiliary, Women of Toledo
The Toledo Hospital Auxiliary was organized in 1921 to secure supplies for Toledo Hospital. Today, the Auxiliary continues to operate the Gift Shop, which opened in 1930 (the Auxiliary’s most long-standing project and largest source of revenue). Over the years, the group has popularized many fundraising initiatives, including significant social events such as the Style Show. Additionally, the group’s Safe Patient Handling program purchases equipment to aid in the safe movement and transfer of patients. Various projects funded by the Auxiliary support facilities by equipping them with state-of-the-art technology. ProMedica Toledo and Toledo Children’s Hospital Auxiliary is constantly evolving to meet the changing needs of our hospitals and community. promedica.org/toledo-hospital/pages/giving-and-volunteering/volunteer-auxiliary.aspx.
