Last night, I attended Connecticut NOW’s 19th Annual Feminist Awards Dinner. The food was surprisingly good for an award dinner. The speeches were particularly long, but they were very inspiring. At one point, the woman next to me and commented about it being a pity that no one from the press was there. I pointed out that there were at least three bloggers there, Maura, Larkspur, and myself.

Maura and I were sitting at a table with Ned Lamont and Jim Himes. I had gone in Kim’s stead, since Kim had company visiting from out of state. She told me that it was important to make sure that Ned and others did a good job of introducing Jim around.

Jim was given a chance to say a brief hello to the crowd.

Jim Himes addreses CT NOW, originally uploaded by Aldon.

Ned was there to receive the Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Political Activism on behalf of Women's Rights. I took a brief video of his comments. Unfortunately, I only had my Digital Camera, no lighting, and only thought to record his comments half way through.

Click To Play

There were seven other award recipients. Felice Duffy spoke about growing up in a family where boys and girls were treated equally and being surprised to find that wasn’t how men and women are often treated in the real world. She spoke about her efforts to get a varsity women’s soccer team at UConn, the role of Title IX, and her experiences as a coach at Yale. Many of us don’t the sexism that is still built into the system or get a chance to make as much of an impact as Felice does. She was a great speaker.

A second recipient was WNBA star, Nykesha Sales. Unfortunately, she was in Poland and wasn’t available to speak.

Donna Stimpson received the Susan B. Anthony Award for Years of Unwavering Dedication and Intense Commitment to CT NOW. Rosemary Dempsey told great stories of working together to get people to demonstrations and doing all of the organizing that is so important and so often unnoticed. As I listened to them talk, I thought about the importance of telling our stories, the stories of fighting for women’s rights, civil rights, civil liberties and against unjust wars. It reminded me of coming out to Connecticut from Ohio back in the 1970s to protest the launching of a nuclear submarine and back then recognizing the struggle as part of a broader context.

The next recipient was Cecile Enrico for her work with Hartford Interval House. I’ve written a bit about stopping Cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is an important issue. However, too often, too many of us forget about the daily struggles women and children who have suffered domestic violence face. They spoke about how eighty percent of boys that have seen their father abusing their mother go on to abuse their spouses, and efforts at Interval House to help not only the mothers but also the children deal with domestic violence.

Dr. Carolyn Mazure, Professor of Psychiatry, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at Yale School of Medicine and Director of Women’s Heath Research at Yale received the Elizabeth Blackwell Award for Advancing Women’s Holistic Health. Kelsy Burke, coordinator of the Women’s Center at Eastern Connecticut State University received the Sybil Ludington Young Feminist Award.

The final speaker was particularly moving. Heather Burford received the Amelia Earhart Award for Breaking Down Barriers for Women and Girls. She is the Fire Chief of the Ridgefield Fire Department. She talked about getting interested in firefighting when she was younger, working as a volunteer firefighter, climbing her way up through the ranks to where she is today. She spoke about talking with middle school students about the fire service, concerns people had expressed about her size and if she would be strong enough to save a man’s life, and issues of being a female firefighter in a very male dominated society.

No, there was no traditional press there. It is too bad, because the stories told were moving stories. They were important stories. This post only captures part of it, and I hope next year we see even more bloggers at the CT NOW dinner to hear and repeat the stories.

(Cross posted at MyLeftNutmeg)