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Schools

Famous Women Flock to Miller-Driscoll

Call out the paparazzi! Miller-Driscoll hosted dozens of well-known women for a 3-D history lesson.

Betsey Ross, Lucille Ball, Betty Ford and Billie Jean King all walk into a school....

Sounds like the start of a joke, but it was actually a living history lesson for Miller-Driscoll K-2 students during Monday's school day. The school's PTA held its 14th annual Women in History day, bringing history to life in the classroom.

Over 40 volunteers dressed up in character as their chosen historical figures, researching facts and dates to teach the students what made them each notable. Among the women the volunteers portrayed were Florence Nightingale, Annie Oakley, Dian Fossey, Sally Ride, Helen Keller, Barbara Walters, Indira Ghandi, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and Cleopatra, among many others.

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Many of the volunteers take part year after year, excited at the chance to bring such a great message about the role women play in the world to the students. Amy Harris doesn't event have children in Miller Driscoll anymore, "but I make sure I'm here each year," she says.

Marie Petterson traveled from Denver to play Mayflower Pilgrim Priscilla Alden because she loves coming to be part of her first-grade granddaughter's school experience.

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"I think it's a great idea for them to get a sense of history this way. I try to make the history come alive," Petterson says. "I'm a teacher at home, and for young children, when you use 3-D things, when someone is dressed as the person, it makes a big learning difference."

Bringing history that the students might not have learned about yet is also key, according to Jen Zimmer, who dressed as astronaut Sally Ride.

"The man at the costume store where I bought this didn't even know who Sally Ride was! That's the whole point of the day."

Teaching children about how strong and smart women are was very motivating for most of the volunteers. Jo Becraft, who portrayed Queen Elizabeth I, quotes the monarch herself in making the message clear to the kids. 

"'I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king,'" she says. Becraft concludes her talk with the lesson that the children should take from the monarch, telling them, "Remember, be confident in your abilities and always believe in yourself."

School librarian Joyce Torres, one of the teachers who helps organize the annual event, encourages each of the volunteers to let their individuals personalities come out in the presentations they give to the students. She cautioned they would get many questions--especially from kids who would probably want to know whether the historical figure they were portraying was still alive.

"Don't get nervous," she advises with a laugh. "Tell them you can't always find every answer in one place. They can go to our library, the Wilton library, or search the internet with their parents to learn more."

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