There’s a celebration in the works to mark the 100th anniversary of Women’s Suffrage in California with a wine tasting along with regionally grown appetizers.  Women were not allowed to vote nationwide until 1920.

Membership in the league is now open to men as well.

The League of Women Voters of San Joaquin County is hoping to attract interest from those passionate about sustaining the integrity of the one man, one woman vote throughout the country.  “Democracy is not a spectator sport,” a spokeswoman for the League said Friday on urging more community involvement.

Manteca was once the core of the League’s membership in San Joaquin County, but that recognition has moved onto Stockton.  League members are hoping that service club members such as Rotary, Kiwanis, Soroptimists, and Lions clubs will join them in their celebration in two weeks.  They are also inviting others who are otherwise involved in the Manteca, Lathrop and Ripon communities to join them and to learn how they, too, can make a difference.

Speaker for the Delicato Winery Tasting Room event is Lynn Hawley a “Women in History” specialist and an instructor at Delta College.  She has been teaching the history class since 1998.

She is known as a highly respected teacher and colleague with a sense of humor and an ability to make her history story-telling come alive in her presentations.

League county President Cate White pointed out that tickets may not be purchased at the door and may only be obtained by going to the league’s website at www.sjc.ca.lwnet.org or by mailing a check for $25 to LWVJC at P.O. Box 4548, Stockton, CA, 95204.  Deadline for reservations is September 9.

White and two of her counterparts from Manteca,  Bea Lingenfelter and Vickie Markarian,  were at the winery Friday morning selecting the wines they will offer in hosting the Saturday, Sept. 17, event to be held from 1 until 3:30 p.m.

All three women had either parents or grandparents who immigrated to the United States and were very serious about having the right to vote in this country.  All three are retired but have kept busy supporting League of Women Voters’ activities.

White had worked with the San Joaquin County Office of Education in the “Special Friends” effort working with children needing attention in the mental health arena.  Markarian served as an English teacher at three Manteca High Schools – Manteca High, East Union and Sierra.

Lingenfelter was also an educator and served as the superintendent of schools in Ceres.  She said her dad was born in Italy and came to America as a child.  Her mother was born in the U.S. of Italian immigrant parents.

Markarian said her parents and grandparents came out of persecution and genocide from Armenia and Turkey at the cusp of the national movement in 1920.  She said they never let an election go by without making sure they voted.  She said while they could only achieve limited education during the early ‘20s, her dad read a newspaper every day and totally understood the value of education.

She is a member of a Stockton Toastmaster Club and serves the League in its speaker’s bureau.  

The League now had some 65 members who belong to the group in hope of making a difference one at a time.