Highway 7 bridge light up in commemoration of the 19th amendment
Organization partners with city of SLP to celebrate women’s rights
The Louisiana Avenue and Highway 7 bridge lift in purple Aug. 26. The city of St. Louis Park decided to change the color of the lights in recognition of Women’s Equality Day.
September 11, 2020
According to the president of the St. Louis Park League of Women Voters, Deb Brinkman, the Women’s Vote Centennial Organization reached out to over 24 cities. The Highway 7 bridge in St Louis Park was chosen since in the past it has been used for events like the remembrance of Prince after his death in 2016.
“When I followed up with the mayor, Jake Spano, he said that the Highway 7 Louisiana bridge was developed just specifically for this since the lights are already installed to commemorate various events like this one,” Brinkman said.
According to the Director of Diversity of the League of Women Voters Minnesota, Shelley Colvin, the bridge was lit up purple and gold which are historically special to women’s equality.
“The organization requested two colors for the event, purple and gold. The significance of the colors is that those are the colors that the original suffragettes used,” Colvin said.
The light-up has inspired Junior Semona Robel to focus more on action regarding women’s rights. Robel said that such events show support towards women’s rights, however, she believes that more direct action is more effective.
“I think this (event) is an amazing way to show allyship, but I do think we need to create more actual change like ensuring women have more access to resources,” Robel said.
According to Brinkman, she believes that it is important for students to stay involved in civics as well as staying informed.
“It is very important for our youth to stay engaged with civics, our LWV (League of Women Voters) is a great resource to keep kids informed with their civic communities,” Brinkman said. Our club is planning on creating an inclusive and diverse outlet for people to be able to have access to talk about certain things that they wouldn’t be able to in other programs in our school — Semona Robe
According to Colvin, she believes that the action the League takes is very important for democracy.
“Access to voting is important for everyone, everything that LWV advocates for is important for all to be included in our democracy,” Colvin said.
Robel said her way of getting more involved in women’s issues is through the club of Girls United. This club is new to SLP but already has plans on how to help around the community.
“Our club is planning on creating an inclusive and diverse outlet for people to be able to have access to talk about certain things that they wouldn’t be able to in other programs in our school,” Robel said. “We also plan on doing events like going to homeless shelters and providing hygiene products.”
