Alice Paul’s Legacy in Action, Ridgefield women who make a difference on March 8 at Keeler Tavern

Women’s History Month, Women Who Make a Difference

Alice Paul’s Legacy in Action on March 8, 2023, 7:30PM

Tickets: $65 pp adults; $15 students

Purchase tickets HERE.

Join Lieutenant Governor Susan Bysiewicz, First Selectman Rudy Marconi and Ridgefield Democrats on March 8th at 7:30 pm for the first Alice Paul Legacy Awards honoring Ridgefield women whose actions and advocacy make an impact upon social equity and justice, democracy, and women’s issues. The Alice Paul Legacy Awards are named for noted suffragist Alice Paul, a 40-year resident of Ridgefield, women’s rights activist and a leader of campaign for the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution prohibiting sex discrimination in the right to vote. Ticket sales and donations will benefit Ridgefield Democrats.

The honorees will receive state and town citations from Lt. Gov. Bysiewicz, First Selectman Marconi, Senators Julie Kushner and Ceci Maher, State Representatives Aimee Berger-Girvalo and Keith Denning. The program will include a musical tribute by Daniela Sikora, vocalist, and poetry written for the event by Ridgefield’s Poet Laureate, Barbara Jennes.

Historical

Anne Richardson, Suffragist, Preservationist and Philanthropist

Anne S. Richardson was a moving spirit for the preservation and betterment of Ridgefield for more than 50 years. She served as a garden club leader, suffragist, world traveler, civic leader, and philanthropist. Along with her lifelong partner, Edna Schoyer, she is recognized with Alice Paul as one of five leading suffragists of Ridgefield. Richardson was a founding member of the Ridgefield chapter of the League of Women Voters, the Boys and Girls Club and President of the Ridgefield Garden Club. She willed her fortune to the Anne S. Richardson Fund which supports the Boys and Girls Club of Ridgefield, St. Stephen’s Church and other non-profits. She specified that funds be used to benefit low-income people, youth, women’s independence, the gay and lesbian community and environmental development. She donated 30 acres of her homestead, Mamanasco Farm, to the town of Ridgefield thereby creating Richardson Park.

Contemporary

Christine Lodewick, Educational and Social Equity Advocate and Philanthropist

Christine Lodewick has championed social and educational equity, the empowerment of women and girls, voter initiatives and the importance of philanthropy for decades. Changing the lives of young women of color through educational opportunities, she was a driving force behind establishing Ridgefield’s A Better Chance (ABC) program in the mid-1980s and is a long- time supporter and donor to ABC.

She’s served on local and state boards, including the Ridgefield League of Women Voters, CT Fund for the Environment, the CT Women’s Hall of Fame, the University of CT’s Alumni Association, and the President’s Council of UCONN Women. She is an advocate for women in philanthropy, establishing an initiative to encourage women in philanthropy at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Connecticut (UConn). Along with husband Philip, Christine Lodewick has endowed scholarships and graduate fellowships at both the University of Wisconsin and UConn. The couple built the Lodewick Visitor’s Center at UConn in 2001, welcoming students and families to the educational and social resources at UConn, and the Ridgefield Library’s children’s room bears their name.

Cindy Bruno, Registrar of Voters

Cindy Bruno has served the Town of Ridgefield for 23 years as a Registrar of Voters, previously serving for five years as Deputy Registrar. For 28 years, she has registered hundreds of Ridgefield High School students and new residents. Under Bruno’s watch, Ridgefield converted from archaic lever voting machines to optical scanning voting machines without a hitch. This required insuring voter access, providing voter education, training of election officials, and voting integrity. She has supervised high pressure, high stakes recounts, petition submissions, primaries, audits of machines (comparing hand counts to machine counts), as well as verified and counted over 8,000 Absentee Ballots in 2020 up from the previous high of 1500. A lifelong resident of Ridgefield, Bruno is a member of the Registrar of Voters Association of CT, the League of Women Voters, a Certified Registrar and Moderator and a long-term member of St. Elizabeth Seton’s Church.

Alisa Trachtenberg, LGBTQ+ Advocate

Alisa Trachtenberg’s journey as an LGBTQ+ ally began in her youth surrounded by friends and family in the LGBTQ+ community, several of whom were advocates for LGBTQ+ equality. Her own journey as the mom of a young transgender child set her on a mission to improve the environment for the LGBTQ+ community in Ridgefield. Trachtenberg has helped to educate and to foster awareness & understanding in the general public, with mental health workers, educators, medical personnel, and government officials via letters, articles, gender trainings and conversations. In 2019, a friend suggested determining if Ridgefield CT Pride could fall under the umbrella of Friends of Ridgefield Community Programs. Trachtenberg wrote the proposal, gathered support and presented it to the Ridgefield Board of Selectman with success.  Presently she is the Chairperson of Ridgefield CT Pride, a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable organization created in 2019 under the umbrella of the Friends of Ridgefield Community Programs.  

The awards event, created by the Ridgefield Democratic Town Committee, takes place this year in the Garden House at Keeler Tavern Museum & History Center, 152 Main Street, Ridgefield. Light refreshments will be served. Free off-street parking.

For more information and to RSVP, visit www.ridgefielddems.org