Four women’s groups will honor San Diego’s female leaders Saturday, March 29 at the University of California, San Diego Price Center Ballroom beginning at 5 p.m. with a VIP reception.
To celebrate March, which is Women’s History Month, the San Diego Women’s History Museum will host the event, honoring six locals with awards by inducting them into the Women’s Hall of Fame.
“The idea is that the four major women’s organizations and groups in San Diego come together to do this event every year,” said Crosby Noricks, spokeswoman for the Women’s Hall of Fame.
San Diego County’s first female district attorney, Bonnie Dumanis, will be awarded The Spirit of the Hall of Fame Award, Noricks said.
“She is getting the award this year. [Dumanis] has done a lot of work with domestic violence,” Noricks said. “She is committed to bringing diversity and diverse leadership into the D.A.’s office.”
In addition to Dumanis, the 2008 Hall of Fame inductees include Sylvia Hampton, Marianne McDonald, Judith Munk, Elizabeth A. Riggs and Karen Vigneault. All the women honored at the ceremony will have their photographs hung at the Women’s History Museum.
Vigneault will receive the Community Award, also called the bridge builder award, for her work in Indian, lesbian and gay rights as well as her efforts to prevent child abuse, Noricks said.
Riggs, who became San Diego’s first African-American woman judge in 1979, will receive the Trailblazer Award. She’s a local youth advocate, Noricks said.
McDonald will receive the Empowerer Award. She has written more than 24 books and plays, and her work has been performed at the Old Globe Theatre.
“She’s a legendary influence who founded the Scripps MacDonald Center in La Jolla,” Noricks said. “It’s dedicated to treating substance abuse.”
Hampton will receive the Activist Award for her work on behalf of legal voters, and for being an influential leader, Noricks said. She is an advocate for healthcare legalization and education and served on President Nixon’s Title Ten Family Planning Council.
La Jollan Munk, who passed away in 2006, will receive the Historian Award, Noricks said. She was a sculptor and architect who was an advocate of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
She designed buildings and a cable footbridge at Scripps, Noricks said.
To attend the ceremony, visit www.whmec.org or call (619) 230-1801. The VIP party begins at 5 p.m.
The San Diego Women’s History Museum is located at 2323 Broadway, Suite 107, downtown.