League of Women Voters-Corpus Christi Area

From Marie Carrales, League VP/Community Relations

And Chris Davis Garcia, President

August 16, 2008

LWV Celebration Set Saturday, Sept. 13, 2008;

author/environmental activist Diane Wilson to speak

The League of Women Voters-Corpus Christi Area will hold its annual Celebration of Women’s Equality Day and Salute to Advocacy on Saturday, September 13, 2008, from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. in the Riviera Ballroom at the Omni Marina Hotel in downtown Corpus Christi. Banquet tickets may be ordered at $45 each by calling the League office at 880-6501.

Keynote speaker will be Diane Wilson, a fourth-generation Texas commercial fisherwoman and mother of five, who has been an environmental advocate and activist since 1989. After publication of her book, An Unreasonable Woman, in 2005, her compelling story has been featured in news media/programming around the world, including The Washington Post, PBS Now, and Democracy Now!

Wilson began fishing the bays off the Gulf Coast of Texas at the age of eight and was a boat captain by age 24. In 1989, while running her brother’s fish house at the docks and mending nets, she read a newspaper article that listed her home of Calhoun County as the No. 1 toxic polluter in the country. She set up a meeting in the town hall to discuss what the chemical plants were doing to the bays and thus began her life as an environmental activist. Threatened by thugs and despised by her neighbors, Diane insisted the truth be told and that Formosa Plastics stop dumping toxins into the bay. In 2005 she wrote a book, An Unreasonable Woman, about her experiences.

Her work on behalf of the people and aquatic life of Seadrift, Texas, has won her a number of awards including: National Fisherman Magazine Award, Mother Jones’s Hell Raiser of the Month, Louis Gibbs’ Environmental Lifetime Award, Louisiana Environmental Action (LEAN) Environmental Award, Giraffe Project, Jenifer Altman Award, and the Bioneers Award. She is co-founder of Code Pink and continues to lead the fight for social justice.

Other highlights of the September 13 celebration will be a salute by City Councilwoman Nelda Martinez to the late Mary Rhodes, Mayor of Corpus Christi, and the Mary Rhodes Pipeline which supports our local water supply and is marking its 10^th year; a skit honoring the Suffragettes and the right to vote; and Silent and Live Auctions. Businesses who want to donate merchandise or gift certificates for inclusion in the auctions are invited to call Evy Coppola, Auction chair, at 985-9642 or 949-4790. Local attorney and League member John Bell, known for his auctioneering talent, will conduct the live auction.

The celebration is open to the public, and tickets can be ordered at $45 per person by calling the League office, 880-6501. Deadline for reservations is Friday, Sept. 5, and reservations must be made in advance. Proceeds realized from this event will underwrite several League activities, including publication of League’s Voter Guides for the fall and spring elections.

For additional information about the League’s celebration, please contact Marie Carrales, Community Relations chair, at 853-7250 or 549-9657, or Chris Davis Garcia, League President, at 991-2784.

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