THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 2, 1995 TAG: 9508020633
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 138 lines
SELL & REESE Marketing used to be a regular business. In its Norfolk office, rate sheets were taped to anything stationary and sketches for brochures were scattered on tables. But in the past two years the office has become a shrine to the women's suffrage movement - a 2-foot replica of the Statue of Liberty propped on the bathroom sink; stacks of history sheets on desks; and green, spongy-foam Lady Liberty crowns dangling from chairs.
Bev Sell and Kathy Reese hadn't intended to redecorate their office a last year, when they first discussed organizing a commemoration for Aug. 26, the 75th anniversary of the women's right to vote. But what started as a small celebration has become a major event.
``Kathy and I talked about putting something back into the community. We wanted to volunteer but we wanted to feel some accomplishment,'' Sell said.
``Our philosophy about life is like organic gardening - you put back more than you take.''
They planted and something grew. Really grew.
Sell and Reese began with a one-day event to honor the anniversary of the 19th amendment, which granted American women the right to vote. But the event has ballooned into ``Celebrate Women,'' a two-day festival at the College of William & Mary which is expected to attract 15,000 to 25,000 people with proceeds going to nonprofit organizations.
Nationally known performers Betty and Saffire - The Uppity Blues Women will entertain, and more than 20 restaurants are selling tickets for a food-and-wine tasting. Sell and Reese get calls from around the country every day.
``We had no idea it would mushroom into this,'' Sell said. ``But this is what happens when you have a group of women who've come together for the sake of something good.''
The ``Celebrate Women'' event has attracted attention from across the nation.
``Truly, if your Virginia one is anything like they expect it to be,'' said Trynn Long, suffrage-event coordinator for the National Women's History Project in Windsor, Calif., ``it will be THE event of the United States.''
The nation will be commemorating the Aug. 26 weekend in varying ways, from small displays in county libraries to a four-day celebration in Washington.
It took many years for American women to gain the right to vote. In 1848 that members of the first Women's Rights Convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y., endorsed the idea of voting. They faced opponents who felt giving women such rights would open a box of evils: tyranny by women, a disintegration of the home and society's moral fabric.
Over the next 72 years, women would be chastised, beaten and thrown in jail to get the right to cast a ballot. Some states and territories, beginning with Wyoming in 1869, granted women suffrage; by 1920, women had full voting rights in 15 states and limited rights in 14 others. The 19th Congress amendment, ratified Aug. 26, 1920, gave all American women the right to vote.
In April 1994, when Sell was working on an article about voting, she called the library to get the date of women's suffrage. With the help of a calculator, Sell realized the 75th anniversary was approaching.
``I looked at my calendar and said, `That's a Saturday,' '' Sell remembered.`` `We have to do something with this.' ''
She talked to her business partner, who agreed that a one-day fund-raiser for a nonprofit event that served women would be a fitting tribute. But Sell and Reese told friends about the anniversary and heard:
``This needs to be a two-day event. . . . Wouldn't it be nice if we could get Oprah to come. . . . We could have seminars on health. . . . We could raise money for all these groups. . . . This could be one helluva party.''
Sell added: ``We realized we needed to take this and make it a celebration for women, that honors women.''
The two met with other women and compiled a list of nonprofit organizations. Calls were made. Eventually, more than 30 nonprofits signed on, agreeing to advertise the event in their local, regional and national newsletters in exchange for free booth space. Volunteers are now coming in from around the state, and more than 60 informational exhibits and seminars are planned for the celebration.
``Celebrate Women'' has brought groups of different backgrounds together for the first time. It will include, for example, both anti- and pro-abortion-rights groups.
``I think that's one of the wonderful things about this. Everyone sat at the table and worked together,'' Reese said. ``Birthright of Williamsburg and Planned Parenthood have different philosophies but they put those aside. They recognize this is as an open, educational forum. . . . Everyone should get the information.''
Women like local poet Barbara-Marie Green heard about the celebration and volunteered to help. Green, 67, is the daughter of a black suffragist, Mae Brown, who organized voting rallies in New York neighborhoods when black women weren't allowed to march with white suffragists.
``This is wonderful to have this opportunity to share this informa-tion,'' said Green, who will be a guest speaker. ``People need to know this history.''
Daryl O'Brien, a clinical social worker, joined Sell and Reese last summer and is now volunteer coordinator.
``I think this is a reminder of how important it is not to take our rights for granted,'' O'Brien said. ``Little by little, they seem to be eroding and women need to be more conscious of things going on around them. I think this is a fun way to remind people of that.''
But even with the outpouring of support, organizing an event around women's history hasn't been easy. Sell and Reese have dealt with snide remarks, such as one man's gibe: ``The country went to hell when women got the right to vote.'' They had to plunk down $500 to form a nonprofit organization to make ``Celebrate Women'' a not-for-profit benefit. They're still wading through the paperwork.
O'Brien has had difficulties with the fund-raising.
``I didn't realize it was going to be so difficult for an all-women movement to be taken seriously. I thought we were farther along than that,'' she said.
Sell and Reese said it would've been easier to quit.
``But we figured if Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton carried this on for 72 years, then we could do this for a year and a half,'' Reese said.
Three weeks to go before their marketing office gets back to normal, Sell and Reese are still looking for volunteers to handle traffic control, concessions and the voter-registration booth.
Even if Sell and Reese don't get the crowds or beautiful weather they would like, they said that with the interest ``Celebrate Women'' has generated so far, it has already been a success.
``This has been a passion, not an undertaking,'' Sell said. ``It's important for young people to see that if you believe in something, you need to stand up for something. All of these people have believed in this.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MARTIN SMITH-RODDEN/Staff
Kathy Reese, left, and Bev Sell have spent a year and a half
organizing ``Celebrate Women,'' a commemoration of the 75th
anniversary of women's right to vote.
Photo
Poet Barbara-Marie Green, right, daughter of suffragist Mae Brown,
will speak.
Graphic
MORE INFO
Updates for Celebrate Women are available through Infoline
640-5555, category 7575. For more information, contact Bev Sell and
Kathy Reese at 857-1794.
by CNB