Celebrating Women's History Month

The world has changed dramatically since Lawrence resident Sharon Douglas, 62, attended Mills College of Education in New York City — at a time when there were colleges women weren’t allowed to attend.

“Women now have the freedom to think and be whatever they want to be,” Douglas said.

In 1980, President Jimmy Carter declared the week of March 8 National Women’s History Week. In 1987, Congress designated the month of March Women’s History Month to expand the celebration of women’s accomplishments.

Douglas, who graduated from Lawrence High School in 1966, has served on the board of the American Jewish Congress and the now-defunct Five Towns Music and Arts Foundation, which brought performances to Hewlett, Lynbrook and Lawrence.

Currently, Douglas organizes events and programs; serves on the boards of the National Council of Jewish Women, the American Red Cross and the Anne Frank Center; reads essays written by high school students applying for scholarships for the Martin Luther King Human Rights Commission; meets with New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand once a month to discuss small businesses and is vice president of the Lawrence Civic Association.

Rochelle Kevelson, president of the Lawrence Civic Association, said she didn’t know Douglas before she led the organization but is happy to have made her acquaintance. “She is my right-hand person and she is very involved,” Kevelson said. “She has time for everything, and I don’t know how she does it. She has time for her family and for the community. I give her a lot of credit.”

There are so many influential women who have been forgotten and need to be recognized, according to Douglas. “A woman architect designed the Vietnam memorial …,” she said, referring to the architect Maya Lin. “People were furious because she was a student and a woman. Hopefully, women have been accepted on the same plane because they are a viable part of our civilization.”

Like Douglas, Bebe Orzac, of Hewlett Harbor, said the world is different today than when she went to college, a time when women graduates hoped they met a great guy who would support them.

Despite being the founder of the South Shore Symphony Orchestra, a member of the Rockaway-Five Towns Symphony Orchestra and the vice president of the Five Towns Senior Center, Orzac still finds time to study the violin, and just began piano lessons. Her inspirations, she said, are Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Jessica Parker.

“Back then, women didn’t have inheritance or voting rights, and today’s women are extremely independent,” Orzac said. “They know they can earn money for themselves, be self-sufficient and marry for companionship, which is a big change.”

Marilyn Cranin, of Hewlett Bay Park, is a trustee of the village, a former vice president of the Five Towns Music and Arts Foundation, serves on the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library board, is a horticulture therapist and board member at the Five Towns Senior Center, and is president of the American Chamber Ensemble and a member of the board of the Waldorf School in Garden City. The senior center’s executive director, Georgiana Wolfson, said that Cranin is a lifelong Five Towns resident who volunteers her time and expertise. “She’s terrific and has been giving back to the community her whole life,” Wolfson said.

Cranin said she donates her time because it gives her enormous pleasure, since the recipients are people who need it. “It doesn’t matter if it’s music, gardening or the library, something good comes out of each thing,” she said. “I do it to fill a void in the lack of sense of community in the world today.”

Kevelson said women’s history should be celebrated everyday. “There are women out there who are outstanding everyday, whether they’re a full-time mother or full-time entrepreneur. They all should be honored because whatever an individual does has merit.”