Meg Froelich, who along with Laura Hoeppner produced what will be an upcoming documentary film, “Strong Sisters,” at a luncheon Monday sponsored by McKenna, Long & Aldrige law firm. The fundraiser is to help get the film made and aired. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)
Nissa Szabo, a former House legislative aide who now is the government affairs manager at the Colorado Technology Association, with former House Majority Leader Amy Stephens at the fundraising lunch Monday for “Strong Sisters.” (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)
Colorado has yet to elect a female governor or U.S. senator or mayor of Denver, a Centennial State trend that an upcoming documentary film .
Among the more than 60 women interviewed for the project was , a Monument Republican who briefly ran for the U.S. Senate in 2014. She was so impressed with the work she is helping raise money to turn the oral histories into a documentary with hopes of getting it aired on TV.
“I want us to cross the finish line,” said Stephens, now director of law firm, which sponsored the luncheon. “This is a history of women in Colorado, particularly those who dare to run for office.”
Former state Sen. Kiki Traylor and Antoinette DeLauro Smith, who serves on the board of the Colorado Women’s Alliance, at the “Strong Sisters” luncheon.(Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)
Two of Gov. John Hickenlooper’s top appointees, legal counsel Stephanie Donner, and legislative lobbyist Lori Fox, at the “Strong Sisters” lunch. (Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post)
More than 100 people RSVP’d to a fundraising luncheon Monday for “Strong Sisters,” which was held at the Artwork Network on Santa Fe Drive. Most of the lawmakers who had committed to attend were unable to get away from the Capitol.
For the last two years, filmmakers Meg Froelich and Laura Hoeppner conducted interviews and did research on women in Colorado, particularly Colorado politics.
Former First Lady Dottie Lamm, who ran for the U.S. Senate in 1996, said the fact that a woman is running for president this cycle means it’s perfect timing to air a film about women in Colorado.
In 1893 Colorado gave women the right to vote, the first time in history that women’s suffrage was granted through a popular vote. The very next year voters sent three women to the state House of Representatives — the first women anywhere in the world elected to a parliamentary body. Now, 41 percent of state lawmakers in Colorado are women. The state has led the nation in the percentage of women lawmakers for more than a decade.
Among those at the luncheon were former First Lady Frances Owens, a Republican; former Democratic state treasurer Cary Kennedy, who now is deputy mayor of Denver; former state Sen. Moe Keller, a Wheat Ridge Democrat; and Republican Michelle Balch Lyng, who operates a communications firm.
