Events

2009 Silent Sentinel Award Reception

ABC 7 News Reporter Natasha Barrett donated her services as mistress of ceremonies for the Silent Sentinel Award Reception.

Dedication Ceremony

Caitlin Schneiderman playing her guitar at the 2008 TPSM dedication.

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure

Race participants are briefed about the memorial by a Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Committee member dressed in period clothing.

Past Events August 21, 2010 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment On Saturday, August 21st we celebrated the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote. The festivities began at 3:30 p.m. at the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Va., with educational talks and activities for children and adults about the suffrage movement and the struggles that led up to passage of the Amendment. The focus was on Inez Milholland Boissevain, the iconic woman on the white horse who led the 1913 suffragist parade through the streets of Washington, D.C. After the Workhouse activities, participants went “next door” to the future site of the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial (TPSM) in Occoquan Regional Park for a mini suffragist parade led by a woman on a white horse. At the site, we planted a tree and a time capsule in commemoration of the 90 anniversary. Ten years from now we’ll dig up the time capsule at what we hope will be the newly constructed Turning Point Suffragist Memorial. November 7, 2009 Fairfax County History Conference Historians attending the Fairfax County History Conference on Nov. 7, 2009, now know a little more about the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial. The memorial was represented at the conference by several committee members who spoke to attendees about the project and the history of the suffragists who were incarcerated in the county’s Occoquan Workhouse in 1917. An expanded exhibit now displays the most current site plans for the Memorial and copies of the existing wayside markers. The Fairfax County History Conference, in its fifth year, was held at the James Lee Community Center in Falls Church. In addition to the exhibits and displays, the Conference hosted book signings, talks and panel discussions on the local history of Fairfax County. The event was sponsored by the Fairfax County History Commission and Architectural Review Board, the Fairfax County Park Authority and the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center. TPSM Committee Chair, Jane Barker, at the Fairfax County History Conference on November 7, 2009.
October 11, 2009 Clifton Days Festival The word is spreading about the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial. Many learned about efforts to build the Memorial during the Clifton Day Festival in Clifton, Va., on October 11, 2009. The streets were lined with vendors and bustling with Civil War re-enactors and local families. The TPSM shared a booth with partner, the League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area. Lynne Garvey Hodge, holding a parasol, attracted attention while dressed as one of the suffragists held at the Occoquan Workhouse, Mrs. Robert Walker. TPSM Committee members manned a display, collected e-mails for our planned newsletter, and distributed brochures at the event. Nestled next to the bulldog rescue tent, the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial display attracted a wide age range as well. TPSM Committee Chair, Jane Barker, and LWVFA member, O.G. Harper, stand by the booth at Clifton Day 2009. June 6, 2009 Celebrate Fairfax! Turning Point Suffragist Memorial committee members participated in Celebrate Fairfax to help raise awareness of the memorial and the history of the suffragists.
May 1, 2009 Silent Sentinel Award Reception Newsweek columnist Eleanor Clift served as keynote speaker (for the Silent Sentinel Award Reception) and told stories from her book about the suffragists, "Founding Sisters." The Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Va. was transformed back to the early 1900s on Friday evening, May 1, 2009, when women re-enactors, picketing for the right to vote, welcomed attendees at a reception for the League of Women Voters of the Fairfax Area's inaugural Silent Sentinel Award. The annual award honors women who exemplify the traits of the women suffragists who were held at the Occoquan Workhouse in 1917. D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton was recognized as a trailblazer for voting equality. Special guests included several descendents of noted suffragists, including Raymund Nolan, the great-grandson of the oldest woman held at Occoquan, Mary Nolan; and Dr. John Tepper Marlin, the great-nephew of iconic suffragist Inez Milholland Boissevain. Eleanor Clift, Newsweek contributing editor and author of "Founding Sisters and the 19th Amendment" gave the keynote address. ABC 7 News reporter Natasha Barrett served as the mistress of ceremonies. Invited guests also learned about plans for the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial which will be located across the street from where the suffragists were held.
July 27, 2008 Occoquan Regional Park - Dedication Ceremony 2008 TPSM dedication with President Wilson and suffragist re-enactors. The official dedication of a new memorial to honor the women suffragists who were imprisoned at the Occoquan Workhouse during their fight for women's right to vote. The program included a ribbon cutting ceremony and speakers from various organizations discussing this time in history, and its significance as it relates to voting rights today.
October 3, 2008 Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure A Turning Point Suffragist Memorial committee member briefs walkers at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The walkers were camping at the Occoquan Regional Park where the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial will be located. Informational brochures about the memorial were distributed while the walkers took a break.