Women honored in celebration of equality

Jill Pickett

Jo Emary was one of four women honored for their accomplishments at the Women's Equality Day program at All Nations Worship Ministries on Sunday in Radcliff.

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Jill Pickett

Kendra Stewart was one of four women honored for their accomplishments at the Women's Equality Day program at All Nations Worship Ministries on Sunday in Radcliff.

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Jill Pickett

Jackie Williams was one of four women honored for their accomplishments at the Women's Equality Day program at All Nations Worship Ministries on Sunday in Radcliff.

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Jill Pickett

The Angelics perform a praise dance Sunday evening during the Women's Equality Day program at All Nations Worship Ministries in Radcliff.

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Jill Pickett

The Angelics perform a praise dance Sunday evening during the Women's Equality Day program at All Nations Worship Ministries in Radcliff.

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  By KELLY RICHARDSON

krichardson@thenewsenterprise.com

RADCLIFF —  Pastor Gloria Fite’s wish to make her women’s equality day celebration an annual event has come true.

The All Nations Worship Ministries church in Radcliff held its second annual Women’s Equality Day celebration Sunday and honored four women for their accomplishments.

National Women’s Equality Day is Aug. 26, and commemorates the  date the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, was ratified.

The church honored Edith Dupin, former Elizabethtown Chamber of Commerce president, Jo Emary, Radcliff Chamber of Commerce president and Hardin County Schools board member, Kendra Stewart, who works in public relations for Lincoln Trail Behavioral Health Systems and is a community volunteer, and Jackie Williams, who does jail and nursing home missionary work.

Dorothy Malone, who was honored last year for her military service in the Korean and Vietnam wars, was the keynote speaker for this year’s event.

Malone said she didn’t know of any other church that held an event to celebrate women’s equality.

“All of them should; most do not,” she said.

Malone said women often forget their own dreams and self-worth once they are married with children. Then they just become someone’s mother or someone’s wife.

“We need more faith in our worth, in ourselves,” she said.

She said women also need to stand up for themselves when they are wronged, and not to forget the power they have.

“The hand that rocks the cradle truly rules the world,” she said.

She also discussed a list she created of “twelve ways to secure your right to be,” and asked women to, among other things, learn something every day, not to let anyone control them and find time to laugh.

The honorees were presented with certificates of appreciation. Dupin could not attend the event.

Stewart said she volunteered so often in the community because she loves the place she lives.

“If you love your community, you’re willing to work for it,” she said.

Emary said she felt she didn’t deserve the award, but was honored to be included on the list. Williams also said she felt small among the great women named.

Williams said she looked forward to the day when everyone was equal in others’ eyes.

“We are equal in God,” she said.

Fite also discussed voting, and not giving up that right. She said she gets teary-eyed when she steps into a voting booth.

“Because in my mind, I think about the women who went before me” and who fought for the right, she said.

Kelly Richardson can be

 reached at (270) 505-1747.