YAKIMA – The Willapacific chapter of the American Association of University Women exceeded their $500 goal, raising $605, for contribution to the Education Assistance Fund. They named it for Edie Shire, who has contributed so much to the organization in the 40 years she has been an associate member.

She had previously been honored at her local chapter’s April meeting.

Shire, Marjorie Beard and Sharon White were part of the 132 who travelled to Yakima in April for the state convention, where Shire was honored in the banquet program.

Next year’s convention will be hosted by the Willapacific chapter on the Peninsula on April 24 through April 26 at the Heritage Museum in Ilwaco. Its theme will be “A Woman Led the Way” referring to Sacajawea of the Lewis and Clark expedition. Willapacific received awards for a 21 percent increase in membership in 2003-04 and also for their literacy project and in getting the 18-year-olds out to vote.

The three primary reasons for this organization are equity for women, education for all women, and lifelong societal change. The state convention gives opportunities for women all over Washington to share fund-raising activities, ideas and associate with professional women who have many of the same goals.

One convention attendee said her local newspaper thought that AAUW meant Alcoholics Anonymous University of Washington. Anyone wanting more specific information on this organization can go to its Web site starting June 1 at (waaauw@yahoo.com). Each chapter will have its own link and each aspect of the state organization will be explained. Training manuals for the various offices will all be on-line. It will be a much more economical way of communicating.

Friday evening in Yakima included a session called “Blow Your Own Horn” where chapters shared fund-raisers and local projects they organize in their communities. One group from Walla Walla had a member dress as an onion and they peeled off her skin in segments showing all the functions of the organization with brief explanations and songs. They were the show stopper. Colville came in second with their coffee pot “working from the grounds up.” They sponsor a coffee house and an art fair that funds their organization’s projects.

Beard explained Willapacific’s literacy project of giving each newborn child and its mother a book and explaining the importance to the family of reading to the child both pre-natal and post-natal. Shire sold 15 colorful resin pins promoting reading at the conference that fund the literacy project. They sell for $14 and are created individually by Lucille, a former homeless person. No two pins are alike.

Saturday’s activities included keynote speaker Elaine Von Rosentiel, League of Education Voters, speaking on the importance of funding pre-school training and a panel discussion on early child development including a statement that 1,000 hours of lap time equals success in school.

AAUW also includes a legal advocacy fund that aids women who have been sexually harassed or discriminated against and are suing universities. They have helped 76 women at $1 million apiece. There are nine current cases and six new ones.

Mentioned in the proceedings was that only 10 percent of the bilingual, mentally or physically challenged, or students from broken homes can pass the newly required WASL test. AAUW lobbied to allow re-testing for these students.

A fourth grade math question from the test was read and most who were present would have had difficulty completing it. There is a current proposal to have math taught to grade school students by specialists eliminating that responsibility from elementary teachers whose education is generalist. Solutions to this problem are to help parents to be the student’s first teacher, improve the quality of child care environment, and to subsidize pre-school for low income and at risk students. Some research was also quoted on babies from orphanages in Romania who were never handled or paid attention to. The result is children who will never experience emotion. Another statistic given was that only 8% of the work force in Washington have been educated by Washington schools. Employers don’t hire our own students. Graduates must find jobs elsewhere.

AAUW affiliate, the International Federation of University Women, will meet in Perth, Australia on August 4-10. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its mission is to advocate for the improvement of the status of women and girls, to promote lifelong education, and to enable graduate women to use their expertise to effect change. They instituted March 8 as International Women’s Day. Fellowships granted at the international level require women to return to their country to utilize their research.

Sunday included a business meeting where there was a two-hour discussion on some changes in the by-laws. Both proposals ended up being tabled for another year. Edie Shire, dressed as Sacajawea, ended the convention with an invitation to next year’s event while Marjorie Beard read a cleverly thought out script. Brochures promoting the Long Beach Peninsula and its attractions were distributed to all in hopes of a good attendance in 2005. All were invited to the 100-year celebration of Seattle’s chapter on October 17 at 3 p.m. at the Women’s University club.