Dear Members: The Halifax Women’s History Society and its Woman on the Waterfront project enters another busy year and wants to update you on our news since our successful launch late last fall.
We want to thank the 39 members who contributed to our fund-raising ask in November and December. We raised $6,200 and are grateful for this generous contribution. Every dollar counts toward our goal of unveiling our monument, The Volunteers/Les Bénévoles, on the Halifax Waterfront to honour the work of the thousands of women, who volunteered their time and labour during wartime.
We also received wonderful news before the holidays that we are receiving a major gift of $100,000 in three parts from a major corporation with ties to the war effort. This will be added to the $100,000 lead gift we announced during our launch in late October. We are very close to reaching the $250,000 mark in our fund-raising efforts and will continue to make fundraising a major part of our year ahead, making asks to funding agencies, foundations, government and corporations.
There are quite a few events this spring that many of you may be interested in attending. Our chair, Janet Guildford, will be giving two talks this winter — one on March 8, International Women’s Day, at the Evenings @ Government House, presented by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia. E@GH is a public event series designed to showcase civic and cultural excellence in Nova Scotia. (Please see attached poster.) The events are conducted every second Tuesday evening and run from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. We hope you can put this date in your event calendar, if you can attend this wonderful commemoration for International Women’s Day.
The second talk will be to the Seniors’ Association of Nova Scotia, SCANS. A date and location will be confirmed soon.
We also are planning our Annual General Meeting. It is tentatively set for Tuesday, April 19. Again, we will be announcing more details and a location in the near future.
The Society now has nearly 300 members. We continue to actively sign up new members so please spread the word and help us with our communication and awareness campaign to reach out to more people who will help us achieve the first monument to honour women and their work in Halifax.
Mary Somers, Communication Chair, Halifax Women’s History Society and Woman on the Waterfront Project