Thursday, May 23, 2024
5:00 pm to 8:30 pm
Dinner and Business Meeting
Alioto's
3401 N Mayfair Rd
Wauwatosa, WI
|  | | Celebrate Spring
Sunday, April 21, 1:15 - 3:30 p.m.
Wauwatosa Public Library, Firefly Room
7635 W. North Avenue
Join the League of Women Voters of Milwaukee County for an informative discussion about accessible walks and paddles in the Milwaukee area. LWVMC members, Karen and Jennifer Lemke, authors of Easy Walks and Paddles in Milwaukee, will share the inside scoop on many accessible trails and waterways in the Milwaukee area, as well as additional information about public restrooms, benches, nearby eateries, environmental issues, fascinating historical tidbits about the people who previously inhabited these spaces, and details about Milwaukee’s social and cultural history.
The Sisters Lemke will be in conversation with LWVMC member Dorothy Dean, founder and executive director of Disability Justice. Easy Walks and Paddles in Milwaukee provides important accessibility information for Milwaukee’s beautiful and abundant green spaces so that more people with disabilities, seniors, and families with children can enjoy these easy-access spaces.
|  | | Learn how to have a conversation, not a debate, when supporting reproductive healthcare and rights. Attend our Milwaukee member-only event led by Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin. This 2-hour, evidence- based workshop will give you confidence and skills to discuss this topic with relatives, friends and neighbors.
Register today for either the virtual or in-person workshop with the links below.
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In Memory of League Leader Sarajane Kennedy
The LWVMC board was recently notified of the sudden passing of Sarajane Kennedy on March 29, following an accident at home. Sarajane was a devoted, 50-year member of the LWV and was dedicated to service in her church, in the League and in the community at large. Read her obituary here. A tribute from her LWV colleagues will follow. Sarajane is pictured below.
| VOTE411 April 2024 Voter Guide
Sarajane Kennedy was the leader of LWVMC’s VOTE411. Sarajane was amazing and she had an amazing group of volunteers doing different tasks. She always talked about how the Voter Guide could not happen without them.
Thank you to League members who served on the team and League members who worked as community volunteers, question writers, and translators. Thank you to all League members who volunteered to promote VOTE411 to their friends, neighbors, relatives and colleagues, and encouraged them to contact candidates about participating in the voter guide. Thank you all for working tirelessly to accomplish the publication of the successful Spring 2024 Voter Guide. | Take the Voter Experience Survey
LWVWI and our Election Protection Coalition Partners are conducting this survey to learn from voters about their voting experience during the April 2, 2024 election. Your input will help us learn about your voting experience and any challenges you experienced.
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Registration Open for
White Women Facing Racism Program | | | In January 2024, LWVMC member Mary Delgado received RID Racism MKE’s Spotlight Award for her commitment to fighting racism in the metropolitan area. Since 2019, Delgado has been facilitating a program designed to help white women understand, confront and set aside racism. “We need to set aside our white lens,” Delgado says, “so that we really can hear and listen to what non-white people are telling us about what life is like for them.”
Delgado has now reached more than 50 women through her White Women Facing Racism: One White Woman at a Time, a program that meets bi-weekly from June through March. In nine months, the participants read, reflect, write and share on the subjects of race. The reading list includes: I’m Still Here: Black Dignity In a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown; Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond; Backlash: What Happens When We Talk Honestly About Racism in America by George Yancy; The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin; Birth of a White Nation by Jacqueline Battalora; Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi; White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity by Robert P. Jones; and The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein.
| A Big Thank You to the Bucks!
They Have Made a Significant Impact!!! |  | | The High School Voter Education and Registration team has been working hard this year to support the Milwaukee Public School Board’s referendum to provide information about voting and voter registration to all high school students. We have been very fortunate to have the help and support of the Bucks. So far this year, their Rim Rockers team has done six pep rallies (impacting seven schools). During the pep rallies, the Rim Rockers, often with the mascot Bango, do amazing tumbles and jumps while making baskets. Their MC is terrific, adding much excitement. The team invites members of the school staff and student body to participate in their feats. Additionally, they throw t-shirts to the audience. The pep rallies are lots of fun for all, including the League volunteers, and promote excitement for voting.
The Bucks asked us to compare the number of students registered in the schools where pep rallies were held this year to the number of students who registered in the same schools last year. |  | Last year, 80 students registered in the six schools; this year,173 students in those schools registered. One school that attended a pep rally had not held a registration event the previous year. Forty-eight students in that school registered. So altogether, 221 students in schools participating in pep rallies registered this year.
Besides pep rallies, the Bucks have given t-shirts, hats, glasses and lanyards to students in other schools. Bango even made a visit to one of the schools. On March 24, the Bucks hosted Joey Walsh (pictured above), a League Outreach Coordinator, along with two MPS staff members and an MPS student at a game and honored these guests on the JumboTron. You can watch the video by clicking on the link below:
Bucks Honoring the League
Working with the Bucks has been wonderful! We are so pleased to see the impact of their support and are so very grateful for it. | | |
 |  | | League Cafe will meet on Friday, April 26 at the MPL East Branch at 10 a.m.
Milwaukee Public Library East Branch Community Room, 2320 N Cramer St
April is a book club meeting and we will be discussing “Obreros Unidos: The Roots and Legacy of the Farmworkers Movement,” by Jesus Salas.
Everyone is welcome to attend even if you haven’t had a chance to read the book! |  |
Tickets Now on Sale for the 2024 LWVWI Annual Meeting in Green Bay, WI!
This year's theme is Tipping Points & Shared Purposes - Challenges of 2024 & Beyond: What We Need to do This Year to Move Through Them Together. Issues we face today affect us in more ways than the obvious. How do we encourage everyone to come together again in our hyper-polarized world? From civics education to artificial intelligence to fair redistricting and beyond, we explore how to find balance before reaching the tipping points.
FORMAT: Hybrid (in-person and virtual options)
DATE: May 31 - June 1, 2024
LOCATION: Oneida Hotel and Conference Center, Green Bay, WI
For additional information on theme, lodging, parking, & material, visit the LWVWI Annual Meeting Hub. |
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| Fund Development - Coffee For Our Cause
| | Coffee for our Cause is a fund raiser and promotes our brand of empowering voters and defending democracy.
Coffee for our Cause needs a new leader. Mary Sussman, who created this fund-raiser and has been its leader, is stepping down this year. The project timeframe is from July through November. A one-year commitment is requested for this worthy project that is satisfying to work on. A team is in place, procedures are up-to-date, and coaching will be available. Please contact Mary Sussman to express interest or get additional information: susscommunications@att.net | | |  |  | | Attend a Roundtable Discussion of Can Trust Be Scaled? Trust the Vote.
Co-sponsored and hosted by the Milwaukee Turners, UWM Center for 21st Century Studies, The Thompson Center, and UWM Political Science.
You don't want to miss this conversation facilitated by UWM Political Sciences' very own Kennan Ferguson between a political scientist, a sociologist and a community organizer. Shana Gadarian, the Associate Dean for Research from Syracuse University, Loka Ashwood, an Associate Professor from the University of Kentucky, and Melody McCurtis a community organizer and Deputy Director of Metcalfe Park Community Bridges discuss the role emotions play in elections and civic engagement!
April 4 (TODAY!) @ 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
University of Wisconsin Milwaukee
Curtin Hall, Room 175
3243 N Downer Ave, Milwaukee
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Bestselling author Jim Wallis to speak at the UMC-Whitefish Bay | | | Friday, April 5, 6 pm
United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay
819 E Silver Spring Dr
Jim Wallis, author of several books, including God's Politics, will speak at the United Methodist Church with his latest work, The False White Gospel, in which he argues that the answer to bad religion is true faith that will help refound democracy. This event is cohosted by Milwaukee Inner-City Congregations Allied for Hope, WISDOM, Bay Bridge Wisconsin, and Boswell.
| Accessing Members-Only Website Portal
The LWVMC website has information and resources that are available only to LWVMC members. To access the membership directory or members-only resources and volunteer opportunities, click on the button below. Contact Mary Ellen Spicuzza at me.spicuzza@lwvmilwaukee.org with any questions. | Support Local Democracy. Support Your League.
Your support is critical to help our nonpartisan grassroots organization reach voters play a critical role in democracy. It would not be possible to empower voters and defend democracy without your support.
Thank you! LWVMC
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