League of Women Voters celebrates first year of tri-community services

About two dozen people attended the Feb. 23 meeting of the Belleville geographical unit of the League of Women Voters held at Trinity Episcopal Church in Van Buren Township. The meeting marked the one-year anniversary of the local unit.
The local LWV group is under the Northwest Wayne County unit, based in Livonia. The Belleville-area group will be under the wing of its mentors until it learns the ropes and is able to go out on its own.
Presiding at the meeting was Angela Ryan, president of the Livonia group, who said the LWV is a strictly non-partisan group.
The LWV put on candidate forums for Van Buren and Sumpter townships in 2016 and Barbara Miller said the forums were excellent and the Belleville group is learning the LWV way of doing forums.
Virginia Belinski told of voter registration events in which she has taken part, including two temples in Canton, one at Schoolcraft College, and one at Wayne County Community College.
In other reports at the meeting of 2017 LWV activities:
• Donna Gilkey-Lavin and Belinski told of their positive experiences at the Women’s March in Washington, D.C., the day after the Presidential Inauguration. Lavin acted out her steps in a lengthy report on why she decided to go to the march and being on a bus for 12 hours with 52 ladies she didn’t know and finally being behind the stage and not seeing a thing. Belinski said she heard of the march within a few days of the election and decided, “I’m going.” She and her sister attended (and were in front of the stage) and will be taking part in other demonstrations. They told of ongoing organizing on the internet for more events.
• Rachel Rion said she was in Wayne for the Women’s March and there were 4,000 people there and 11,000 in Ann Arbor. She said there are plans for the Ides of Trump on March 15 to inundate the President with postcards demanding he release his taxes.
• Paula Bowman and Barbara Miller reported on the brochure “They Represent You” being put together for the tri-community. It is a work in progress to give voters easy access to information on their elected officials.
• Bowman and Belinski reported on the Government Finance Study underway by the state LWV. A consensus meeting for the Livonia group was set for Feb. 25.
• Miller and Ryan reported on election monitoring for condos/co-ops that is being done in Wayne by the local LWV, which is being paid for doing it. The Belleville group is looking into doing this locally as a fund raiser.
• Sherry Frazier reported on a relationship with WCCC. They are asking the college to have booths set up at the beginning of classes so they can register voters. Frazier then went on to say, “It makes me swell with pride that these women went to Washington in a democracy where people are participating … We need to make democracy work.” When it was pointed out Millennials refuse to register or to vote, Ryan suggested they get the Millennials involved in local questions first.
• Miller pointed out VBT Clerk Leon Wright is doing voter registration at Belleville High School and setting up voting machines for the student council elections.
• Miller suggested a Voters Hall of Fame be set up. She passed out information on the Pennsylvania Voters Hall of Fame that honors those who have voted in every November election for at least 50 consecutive years. She said the local group could start with honoring voters in one community to get it started here.
• Ryan and Miller talked about fund raising, since the local group will have to be on its own and raise its own funds. They suggested auctions and donations.
• Bowman, who is chairwoman of the state LWV convention May 19-21, at the Kellogg Center in Lansing, said the Livonia group is able to send and pay for five delegates and some from Belleville could be included.
• Miller said that Suffrage started in 1920 and will be celebrating its 100th anniversary within a few years. She suggested members start reading up on Women’s Suffrage so they will be knowledgeable on the subject.