By Patrick Adrian
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CLAREMONT — A 19th Amendment celebration on Saturday looks to honor voting, the political achievements of women in Claremont politics and the importance of diversity and inclusion in the American democratic process.
The Claremont-Sugar River Rotary Club will commemorate the 19th Amendment’s 100th anniversary on Saturday from noon to 2 p.m. with ice cream, bracelets and, if desired, registration assistance for an absentee ballot.
Like the Claremont-Sugar River Rotary Club’s Mask Up NH event in June, Celebrate the 19th will be a drive-thru-only event to promote social distancing and safety amid the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic. Families will remain in their vehicles and drive through the stations where volunteers will distribute free ice cream donated by Wade’s in Claremont and Ben & Jerry’s, commemorative bracelets and pamphlets about the women’s suffrage movement.
New Hampshire e Rep. Gary Merchant, a Claremont Rotarian, noted the city’s historical lineage of women in elected office, including former State representative Clare Patterson Brooks, former Claremont Mayor Marion L. Phillips and current Mayor Charlene Lovett.
“These are pillars of our community who were women,” Merchant told the Eagle Times on Friday. “It’s the same today with women who are serving on our city council and school board. So we’re very blessed with having women in our community who have stepped forward and taken roles in public office.”
This event also looks to highlight the broader and continuing topic of diversity and inclusion, being the issue that drove the women’s suffrage movement, Merchant said.
“The whole [concept] of democracy is based upon inclusiveness and equality,” Merchant said. “Everyone should have the right to vote. There should be no barriers to it.”
Merchant noted a similar theme in 1920 — the year the 19th Amendment was ratified — to 2020, when many Black Americans continue to battle problems of racial injustice and political fights have intensified over issues like mail-in ballots and voting accessibility during the pandemic.
“In 1920 it took men, the only people who could vote, to step to the plate and say that ‘[women] have as much right to vote as we do,’” Merchant said. “Just like today, where it’s going to take all the members of our society and democracy to say that everyone has the right to vote.”
Citizens seeking an absentee ballot for the November election will be able to complete a request form at the event. The Claremont-Sugar River Rotary Club will submit the forms to the city following the event.
The event will be free to the public, though the Claremont-Sugar River Rotary Club will welcome donations to fund other Rotary events.
The Rotary is a nonprofit international service organization that strives to create goodwill and unity around the world. Created as a social club for business and professional leaders by Chicago attorney Paul Harris in 1905, the organization today has over 35,000 clubs worldwide and a membership of over 1.2 million members.
A notable Rotary achievement includes its global project PolioPlus, dedicated to the eradication of polio. The initiative has raised and invested more than $850 million since its inception in 1985, with the aid of Matching Challenge Grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to inoculate over two billion children across the globe.
Other Rotary International projects target literacy and the access to clean drinking water through distillation and filtration projects.
The Claremont-Sugar River Rotary Club had originally scheduled the 19th Amendment celebration for Saturday, Aug. 29, but postponed due to weather. The 19th Amendment was passed by Congress on June 4, 1919, and ratified on Aug. 18, 1920.
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