Greetings and Happy Women’s History Month!

LWV-PA members prepare to caravan on a cloudy February 14, the League's birthday

I want to thank all of you who joined our celebrations last month on February 4 and February 14. I had a wonderful time seeing people I hadn’t come across since the beginning of the pandemic. It’s a blessing to realize that with careful precautions, we can now meet in person. Meeting in person allows us to feel the passion and commitment that holds us together as a League.

That’s why a group of us will take the opportunity to meet in person on March 6 at Maxwell House, located next door to our League office. The purpose of our meeting is to discuss strategies designed to reach marginalized communities in our service area. We are focusing on plans to intensify existing community outreach programs like the ones implemented by our Natural Resources, Voter Services, and Social Justice Committees, and we hope to add to those programs to make our outreach more effective.

It’s an exciting time to be a member of an organization committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. March is the ideal month to start growing our influence as an organization. The best way to celebrate Women’s History Month is to try to make a little history of our own. As we plan for our 87th Annual Meeting in June, we need to remember that our active participation is the only way to sustain the organization and to grow it by making a difference in the civic lives of the residents we serve. Through civic engagement and community outreach, we can inspire others to join us in our efforts and keep us strong.

Our heartfelt condolences and hopes for rescue and comfort go out to those impacted by the weather and to those in Turkey, Syria, and adjacent areas suffering through the devastation of the February 6 earthquake and its aftershocks.

Standing in solidarity with the women of Ukraine,

—Martha Y. Zavala