Editor’s Note
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Archive for February 20th, 2009

Let’s hear it for the girls…

Add comment February 20th, 2009

Thursday night at the Rockford Art Museum, Janet Clark Holmgren became the second Rockford Woman of the Year. The chief judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit, Holmgren shared honors with Mary Bartel, Judy Schultz, Peg Wilkerson and Monica Williams, the four finalists.

Big deal, you say? Another award thing where the same people honor the same other people? Ah, not so fast. The Rockford Woman of the Year is a very big deal — as big as Excalibur, which tends toward the guy side of things. But, more important, it’s the amazing strength, resilience and diversity of the women honored that makes it such a big deal.

These five women span history from the first Great Depression to today’s Great Depression II. They are living proof that when women set their minds to it, they accomplish great things, not because they bully their ways through, but because they share, support, strengthen and build. I am glad Rockford Woman Magazine gives me a chance to celebrate being a girl.