New president of Local League of Women Voters takes over reigns
By Tom Ganser
Correspondent
The League of Women Voters-Whitewater Area’s Holiday Dinner Dec. 14 at the Cold Spring Inn was cause for a celebration that included a reflection on the past year’s accomplishments, the presentation of the 5th Annual Making Democracy Work award to Emma Lou Sederholm and a recognition of the service of Ellen Penwell whose term of office as league president ended Wednesday.
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater students Michael Glaschka, Michael Inloes, Dylan Ovanin and Justin Weis set a festive mood for the annual gathering with jazz versions of holiday tunes.
Following the dinner, Penwell began by highlighting a few of the League’s events and programs during 2014 “in keeping with our mission to encourage informed and active participation in government and to educate and advocate public policy issues that, through consensus, we support.”
The League organized three non-partisan candidate forums, one for Common Council candidates running in the spring municipal election and two in advance of the Nov. 4, 2014, general election, for District 15 State Senate candidates and District 43 State Assembly candidates.
“Our audience-driven forums provide fair and civil venues for the candidates and opportunities for voters to make educated decisions on Election Day,” Penwell said.
“Of enormous importance to this effort since we launched our website in 2012, have been our online Candidate Questionnaires, which provide candidate views on issues for the Whitewater electorate. Requests for page views on our website spike during the weeks these are posted, testimony to the website’s effectiveness and the need for this information,” Penwell added.
In September the League hosted Whitewater City Manager Cameron Clapper for this second league-sponsored State of the City Address and in November WALWV board member Jane Roberts brought state senators Tim Cullen and Dale Schultz to Whitewater for a program on redistricting.
To provide context to the Making Democracy Work award, Penwell said it was introduced in 2010 in celebration of the 90th anniversary of the formation of the National League of Women Voters and the passage of the 19th amendment.
“The award was intended,” Penwell told the audience, “to celebrate an individual in our community who through his or her professional work or volunteer efforts, or perhaps both, had made a difference in the quality of life in Whitewater and whose work exemplified the League’s core values, spirit of maintaining an open and fair democracy, and commitment to civil discourse.”
Past recipients of the Making Democracy Work award include: Jim Stewart (2010), Marilyn Kienbaum (2011), Michele Smith (2012) and a team of teachers in Whitewater’s English as a Second Language (ESL) Program (2013): Anjie Kokan, Jorge Islas, Marge Fischer and Sandra Heyer.
Penwell presented this year’s 5th annual Making Democracy Work award to Emma Lou Sederholm, one of several other community women including Emily Saunders and Yoshi Varney, who 50 years ago decided to act on their shared interest in establish a local League of Women Voters in Whitewater.
“Of all our ‘founding mothers, Emma Lou alone remains a member of this league to this day,” Penwell said. “Tonight we honor Emma Lou for her founding work and 50-year commitment to our League and, in doing so, we also giver our heartfelt gratitude and recognition to the entire core group of the organizers.”
Penwell shared that on October 29, 1964, Sederholm conducted the first meeting of the Whitewater Provisional League of Women Voters. She also assisted in the drafting of by-laws and a non-partisan policy, and the creation of a board of directors with officers and a nominating committee.
In April 1966, Whitewater’s Provisional League was granted full League status by the State of Wisconsin and soon thereafter recognized by the League of Women Voters of the United States.
Sederholm served as President of the League of Women Voters Whitewater Area from 1968-1970, from 1992-1994 and has been an active member serving in other roles. She currently serves as a board director.
“I have so much respect for you and all you have achieved for us,” Penwell said. “Thank you for your role in creating this organization, which for so many years has provided so many concerned citizens like myself, with an effective means to express and act upon our interest in making democracy work. You’re the voice of reason on the board, a model of nonpartisanship in your approach to program planning and a link to our past.”
Sederholm said there is more to be done.
“This is very moving and greatly appreciated,” Sederholm said. “And then I have to say we have work to do yet. There’s a lot of education that needs to be done, get the issues out there before the people, and make sure it’s in a bipartisan fashion. We have work to do for another 50 years and beyond.”
The meeting wrapped up with Thomas Drucker, who took over as president of the League of Women Voters – Whitewater Area on Jan. 1, honoring the occasion of Penwell stepping down as president.
Drucker described Penwell as being “emblematic” of the goals of the League, “an informed citizenry, encouraging civic participation, starting with voting, but not stopping there, and holding elected officials to a certain standard of honesty, industry and civil discourse.”
“Our lives as citizens of Whitewater are the better for what Ellen Penwell has done,” Drucker said. “Her example will light the way forward to making the city, the state and the country a place where patriotism involves more than empty words or blind neglect.”
On behalf of the League, Drucker presented Penwell with a painted glass plate depicting the state of Wisconsin, saying it served as a reminder that “Ellen’s mission, like the Wisconsin Idea, was as wide as the borders of the state itself.”
