AAUW CORNER/
New friends await at AAUW
By Kay Hardy Campbell
GateHouse News Service
Thu Sep 20, 2007, 01:31 PM EDT
Hingham -
Life quickens with the start of the
school year, marking a season of milestones. Children go off to kindergarten.
New freshmen take up residence at college. Taking on new projects and
challenges seems natural in the cooler weather. As the leaves turn around us,
many of us are also turning the leaves of our own lives’ pages.
Whatever changes and challenges this
fall brings you, consider making your own fresh start by meeting new friends
and stimulating your mind. Attend a program sponsored by the women of the
Hingham Area Branch of the American Association of University Women — AAUW. Its
members from Plymouth to Quincy are sponsoring a series of intriguing evening
lectures during the school year. These events are free and open to the public —
both men and women are invited.
Like many civic groups in our South
Shore towns, AAUW has a storied local history. The organization began more than
125 years ago in Boston, when a group of pioneering female college graduates
formed an association for mutual support. The decades passed and women fought
for the vote, and then climbed up career ladders in the public and private
spheres. Meanwhile, AAUW grew into a nationwide network of local branches with
more than 100,000 members. Its crowning achievement is the establishment and
support of its Educational Foundation, the largest foundation of its kind
funding women’s higher education.
On the South Shore, the Hingham Area
AAUW branch has more than 50 members, made up of native Bostonians and
transplants from around the country. Uniting them is a commitment to AAUW’s
vision, and a belief in the importance of women’s friendships as we march
through life’s stages. The Hingham branch has long played a regional leadership
role in the organization. Currently, the president of the Massachusetts AAUW is
Hingham resident Patricia Bologna.
In October, local author-parenting
expert Lynne Reeves Griffin will speak at the Hingham Middle School about her
debut book, “The Negotiation Generation-Take Back Your Parental Authority.” A
visiting Chinese scholar will share her personal perspective on Women in Chinese
Culture in November. The group will discuss Khaled Hosseini’s best-seller “A Thousand Splendid Suns”over a potluck supper in January. This winter
supper-book discussion has become one of the branch’s most popular events.
Social worker Barbara Tortarella will speak about
humor in February. To honor women’s history month in March, Dr. Margaret Bendroth, director of the American Congregational
Association, will discuss “The Nineteenth Century Woman: A View from the
Twenty-First Century”at Braintree’s Thayer Public
Library. In April, former Lt. Gov. Evelyn Murphy will discuss Pay Equity at
Notre Dame Academy.
Branch members also run several
interest groups. They have a Writer’s Group (first meeting Sept. 20), the
De-Clutter Bugs support group (meeting Sept. 27), and a Girls’ Game Night
(meeting Sept. 25). In addition to these activities, AAUW will once again
present its annual Recognition Award to a deserving scholar from the South
Shore.
The public is welcome to attend the
lectures. Holders of associates or bachelors degrees who live in the South
Shore towns from Plymouth to Quincy are welcome to join the Hingham Area
Branch. If you are interested in joining AAUW or learning more about the
organization, please call Patricia McKay at: 781-337-3375, or e-mail hollie@gallivan.org.
Visit the branch’s Web site at aauw-ma.org.
Kay
Hardy Campbell is a Hingham resident and a member of the Hingham Area Branch of
AAUW.