ASHLAND — Kari Pickens grew up surrounded by girls who completed so much athletically.
Her mother, Carolyn Mast Pickens, is the one feminine basketball participant in Ohio College historical past to have her jersey retired, and was a two-time All-American. One in all her sisters was named one of the best ladies basketball participant within the state of Ohio — twice. Her different sister was an All-American athlete at Ashland College.
Pickens was an excellent athlete, too. She set the Division II file for many consecutive video games with a double-double in her profession. A former Division II Participant of the Yr, Pickens coaches Ashland College’s girls’s basketball crew.
Below her management, the crew has a 142-15 file. It additionally had an ideal season final yr, profitable the Division II nationwide championship.
Nonetheless, Pickens advised a crowd of Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies on Tuesday night time she was ignorant to the necessity for teams like theirs.
“I’ve been surrounded by girls empowerment my complete life,” Pickens mentioned.
She shared it wasn’t till the COVID-19 pandemic that she understood not all girls had skilled the identical empowerment she did. She mentioned she researched the difficulty and had her eyes opened because of studying studies on the problems, and watching movies like “Hidden Figures.”
Pickens was the keynote speaker at Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies’s Nationwide Enterprise Ladies’s Week Celebration on Monday night time.
Her speech centered on the 50-year anniversary of Title IX.
Title IX is the federal legislation that banned discrimination on the idea of intercourse in teaching programs and actions receiving federal funds. The 50-year anniversary was in 2022. That act opened the door for girls like Pickens, her mother and sisters to take part in highschool and school athletics.
“For me personally, I didn’t notice how a lot this legislation impacted my life earlier than I used to be even born,” Pickens mentioned.
She talked about how 50 years in the past, the alternatives she’s been afforded in her athletic profession wouldn’t have been doable for girls. She advised these in attendance on the celebration that it’s necessary to coach youth on this matter.
“After we get misplaced within the alternatives we’ve got, we neglect to replicate on the place we got here from,” Pickens mentioned.
As she labored to coach herself on the subject, she educated her crew, too. They’ve watched movies and skim articles about Title IX. She mentioned they’ve additionally had crew discussions about what it means, why it mattered and find out how to proceed to develop from it.
Pickens added organizations like Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies play a job in that training. She challenged the group to coach youth about girls’s equality and the historical past behind it.
Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies
Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies is a part of a nationwide group, the Enterprise and Skilled Ladies’s Basis.
The nationwide group was “the primary basis devoted to conducting analysis and offering info solely about working girls,” in accordance with its web site.
Ashland’s group of Enterprise and Skilled Ladies has about 19 members, mentioned President Rachael Yoder on Tuesday.
Its mission, in accordance with its Fb web page, is “To attain fairness for all girls within the office via advocacy, training and data.”
The group has a scholarship fund, sends a feminine pupil from the world to Buckeye Women’ State every year and runs a “Sunshine Challenge” the place it donates to the Rape Disaster Challenge and Protected Haven, Ashland’s home violence shelter.
Nationwide Enterprise Ladies’s Week celebration
Annually since at the least 1984, mentioned Secretary Karen McCready, the group has hosted a Nationwide Enterprise Ladies’s Week celebration. Anybody within the space may register to attend the dinner and night’s program.
Mayor Matt Miller additionally spoke, studying a proclamation declaring Oct. 15 to 21 as Nationwide Enterprise Ladies’s Week in Ashland. He additionally talked about how necessary girls in enterprise are to Ashland, and gave the group an replace on the town’s development tasks.
The group introduced its Steady Giving Award to acknowledge a member who excels at giving again to the Ashland group.
This yr, Roberta Weiler obtained the respect. She advised the group she was “blown away” by it, and hadn’t anticipated the award.
Representatives of the Rape Disaster Challenge, run via Ohio Well being, and Protected Haven additionally gave speeches. Each organizations obtain donations from Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies via the group’s Sunshine Challenge.
Jennifer Coffindaffer is a registered nurse with Ohio Well being, and talked in regards to the Rape Disaster Challenge. It offers sexual assault nurse exams. Coffindaffer mentioned she has seen survivors starting from two weeks outdated to 98.
She shared about how gathering proof can imply survivors need to go residence with out articles of their clothes.
Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies helped present luggage of clothes of their sizes for survivors to take with them. The luggage include pants, t-shirts, flip-flops, brushes, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soaps and gels, deodorant and new pairs of underwear.
Coffindaffer mentioned the luggage make an enormous distinction.
Rebecca Garcia with Protected Haven additionally spoke. She mentioned the home violence shelter has served 61 folks within the shelter this yr. They’ve obtained extra calls than that, although.
By the Sunshine Challenge, Yoder mentioned, Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies donated 60 towel units and laundry detergent to Protected Haven.
“We have now to care for our personal folks,” Garcia mentioned.
Garcia mentioned Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies, together with Coffindaffer’s work with the Rape Disaster Challenge, permit “Ashlanders to care for Ashlanders.”
Remaining impressions
For Yoder, the group’s president, Tuesday night time was successful. She has been a part of Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies for 3 years. Yoder shared on Tuesday that she joined due to the group’s advocacy for childcare.
She works in manufacturing, and mentioned that’s typically a male-dominated area. Yoder mentioned the group has impressed her. Most of the girls concerned have gone via struggles and turn into robust group mentors.
Yoder mentioned this yr’s occasion had one of many largest attendances the occasion has ever seen. Plus, she mentioned, Pickens made for a fantastic keynote speaker.
Yoder inspired any girls in want of a sisterhood to affix the group. It’s open to males too.
“We’re stronger in numbers,” Yoder mentioned. “The extra folks we’ve got, the extra good we are able to do.”
For these focused on extra info on Ashland Enterprise and Skilled Ladies, you possibly can go to their Fb web page: https://www.fb.com/AshlandBPW/.
