The entire McAuley community is joining together to celebrate Women’s History Month. Alumnae are returning to share their experiences during an all-school assembly; students are taking part in class projects demonstrating the contributions of women, while the faculty strives to incorporate the numerous ways women have changed America into their lesson plans. There are also biographical posters of successful women on display throughout the school.

The alumnae speakers were chosen because their accomplishments and life experiences fit into this year’s Women History Month theme of “Builders of Communities and Dreams.”   They include the Honorable Gloria Coco ’68, Anne Edwards Cotter ’73, Therese Franklin Montes ’84, Moira Hardek ’97 and Claudette
Soto ’97.

During the assembly, McAuley will present one student from each class level with a Service Award. Winners are chosen for their service work both in and out of school. The spirit of these young women honor generations of historical women.

An added feature this year will be the performance of the play, “Passages of Grace,” written by Judge Coco. This one woman play is based upon a final request made by Coco’s mother, Grace, upon her deathbed. When Grace was just seven, her widowed mother brought her and her younger brother to America. While detained at Ellis Island for three months, Grace’s brother died of scarlet fever. The family never knew where he was buried, a fact that haunted Grace her whole life. Grace’s final wish was for her daughter to find where he had been laid to rest. After her mother’s death, Coco discovered her uncle had been placed in a pauper’s grave in Queens, New York. To honor her mother’s final request, Coco had a memorial plaque placed beside the grave.


FOR MORE information:
Susan Barnett
773-881-6558
sbarnett@mothermcauley.org