Annual Meeting
Advancing Equity for Women and Girls

May 2019

Members enjoying lunch.

(R to L) Nancy Knaus, JoAnn Schilling, and Melanie Heckel

Shirley Payne, 30-year member, and Virginia Kingston, crafty quilt maker.

Full Steam Ahead — We Did It!!

Early morning set-up crew, (r to l) Candy Jewett,Stephanie Facchini, Ann Shulse, and Kathy Smith

For the third year in a row, AAUW Nevada County was among the organizations and companies participating in the Nevada County Superintendent of Schools (NCSOS) STEAM Expo for students throughout the county, and their families and friends. Through posters and product displays, the branch brought home the message of women’s role in science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM).

Piggybacking on the branch’s theme of inspiration, booth visitors also had the chance to share “Who or What Inspires You?” as well as make INSPIRE bracelets, hair clips, or backpack tags with ultraviolet (UV) visible beads that turned from white to color under UV black lights or out in the sunshine.

Who Knew?

Around the world and across history, innovative women have imagined, developed, tested, and perfected their creations. Those who visited our booth now know about all of these women and more. Women inventors are behind many of the products and technologies used every day! For example, if you use GPS on your cell phone (Hedy Lamarr and Gladys West), turn on windshield wipers when you drive in the rain (Mary Anderson), clean plates in a dishwasher (Josephine Cochrane), wear non-reflective eye glasses (Katherine Blodgett), or enjoy a scoop of ice cream (Nancy Johnson), you can thank the woman behind them! Who knew that a woman (Stephanie Kwolek) invented Kevlar used in bullet-proof vests?

Lots of Effort

Thanks to the AAUW Nevada County “village” that came together to make our participation in this event possible. From helping with planning, scouting for items to display, creatively setting up the booth and displays, volunteering during the event, and pitching in to clean up, this crack-jack group included Laurie Alire, Deb Cubberley, Jeanne Duerst, Stephanie Facchini, Bup Greenwood, Virginia Horowitz, Candy Jewett, Stephanie Owyoung, Ann Shulse, Kathy Smith, and Shirley Zeff. Plus thanks goes out to our former Tech Trekkers who volunteered (a couple on the same day as their junior prom) and who welcomed visitors to the booth and helped youngsters make with their UV bead creations: Olivia DesAutels, Isabel Luke, Allison Johnson, Annabelle Owyoung, Eva Zlimen (and her friend, Zara). As our booth slogan stated: We Can Do It! Full STEAM Ahead!