“Empowered women empower women. Help a “sister”- you just might save a life.” The Western Wayne Girls Lead Club used this quote for a sticker on a treat bag they gave out to high school students during lunches for homecoming this fall as one of their club projects.
The Girls Lead Club is an organization at Western Wayne whose purpose is to spread awareness about women’s rights and make all students feel more equal at school. The group is open to members of both genders and has been in existence at Western Wayne for about three years under advisor Mrs. Marianne Morgan, English department chairperson.
Morgan explained that the sticker with the empowering quote was on a bag that had bracelets that said WWHS Homecoming 2018 on one side, and Girls Lead on the other. The bag also had a symbolic Lifesaver inside.
“We chose this overall message to promote the attitude of befriending each other in a sisterhood and also to bring forth the topic of suicide prevention which has been at the forefront this year,” Morgan explained.
The next fall project the club will work on is set to take place in November. For this event the students will work at a table in the cafeteria during which other high school students, on a voluntary basis, will be invited to complete the sentence stem, “Empowering women is important to me because…”
Each student who does so receives one raffle ticket toward a variety of items the group has purchased to promote positive self-image and the worth of young women. These include cups which say, “Girl Power”; shirts with female super heroes; a glass tray that says, ‘She needed a Hero, so that’s what she became;” a storage cube that says, “Be Bold, Brave & Brilliant,” etc.
Student officers in the club include: Coral Swoyer, president; Sydney Peet, vice president; Vaeda Pontosky, treasurer; Trina Barcarola, activities director; Emily Kosciuk, art director; and Evan Thomas, press relations officer.
Trina, activities director, looks forward to this next Girls Lead event and is glad to work with this unique organization.
“I like to watch women empowerment figures on YouTube, so I thought this group would be something I would want to get involved with,” Trina explained. “I want to help girls become more confident.”
Fellow club officer Emily Kosciuk, art director, agrees.
“We really get things done when we meet,” Emily said. “The group is really a confidence booster.”
Emily and Trina hope that as the organization continues to grow and do more activities to involve the student body that more of their classmates will come out to support the group and what it stands for.
“I have seen some students come to understand our organization better once we explain the significance of who we are and what we are doing,” Trina said. “We hope to get as many students involved as possible.”
