FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
A Call for Service: A Special Note to Women encourages Service to Others to Mark Dr. Dorothy Height's Centennial Week-long celebration of service launches March 17th in Washington, DC with public event
Washington, DC, District of Columbia (March 5, 2012)—March twenty-fourth of this year marks the One Hundredth Commemorative Birthday Celebration of Dr. Dorothy Irene Height. In celebration of this occasion, The Dorothy I. Height Education Foundation (DIHEF) and the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), an organization Dr. Height chaired for 50 years, issued a call for service. This call is for a week long celebration of activities beginning March 17th from three to five in the afternoon.
The Call….A special note to women in the United States and abroad is a request to engage in some of the following activities:
- Visit or support a shelter…the homeless, battered/abused
- Take time to mentor a young girl
- Spend time with a senior and talk about our history
- Make an appointment or take someone to a health professional appointment
- Take a walk with someone
- Pray with a woman
- Tweet or post a positive message
- Take a young girl to work
Women are encouraged to add additional service acts on the website, post photos of their service, tell stories about their service, engage in conversations about service with others celebrating Dr. Height's birthday and legacy.
"A call to service is an appropriate way to remember Dr. Height on her Birthday, especially in March, which is Women's History Month," said Alexis Herman, President of DIHEF. "There will be a public celebration to launch the call for service and usher in her Birthday week. The public celebration will take place at Shiloh Baptist Church on Saturday, March 17, 2012 in Washington, DC from three to five in the afternoon."
In her book, Living with Purpose, Dr. Height wrote "Women who have made a great contribution have done so through their service, their awareness, and their determination to be contributors to the empowerment of all". Barbara Shaw, Chair of NCNW, states "Dr. Height would want us to remember her birthday in service to others."
For more information, visit www.dorothyireneheight.org, email The Dorothy I. Height Education Foundation at [email protected].
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Dorothy I. Height Education Foundation
633 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
3rd Floor
Washington, DC 20004
202-833-8800
[email protected]
Alexis Herman, Former Labor Secretary, Signs Copies of Dr. Dorothy Height’s Final Book, Living With Purpose,
(Secretary Herman wrote the book’s introduction.)
ST. LOUIS (August 17)—Living With Purpose: An Activist’s Guide to Listening, Learning and Leading, the book Dr. Dorothy Irene
Height completed in the weeks before passing last April at 98, was released last month during Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.’s 50th
National Convention in New Orleans. The long-time civil rights activist was chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro
Women (NCNW) and served as the sorority’s tenth national president from 1947 to 1956.
“Dorothy dedicated her life’s work to inspiring people and giving them the tools to move forward and work together for the highest
good,” stated former Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman, who wrote the book’s introduction. “Through Living With Purpose that work
is continuing. It is her final gift not only to the millions whose lives she positively impacted, but also hopefully to millions more who will
be inspired to follow in her footsteps.”
Secretary Herman will sign copies of the book at two locations in St. Louis. On Wednesday, August 18, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30
p.m., she will be signing books at Legacy Books & Café, 5249 Delmar Boulevard. On Thursday, August 19 from 6:30 p.m. to
8:30 p.m., she will be signing books at the St. Louis Union Station Marriott, One St. Louis Union Station. Since the signing at
the Marriott coincides with the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting, please bring a photo ID to ensure entry.
The first copy of the first edition of the booked signed by Secretary Herman was presented to President Obama and the presidents of
NCNW and Delta Sigma Theta received the second and third copies, respectively. President Bill Clinton wrote the foreword to the
book.
In Living With Purpose, Dr. Height draws from a century of her experiences and insights to address one of the most pressing
questions all must face—how to fundamentally connect with true purpose in life and act upon it. In the book, she shares the first hand
lessons she learned from teachers from all walks of life—including historic people like Eleanor Roosevelt, Marcus Garvey, Langston
Hughes, Mary McLeod Bethune—and equally from those known only to a few, from a young boy in rural 1950s India to the mothers of
the young girls killed in the Birmingham church bombing. Dr. Height helps readers understand what needs to be done on the inside to
set the table and how to effectively work with others to move forward powerfully.
Proceeds from the book benefit The Dorothy I. Height Education Foundation and The National Council of Negro Women. For more
information on Living With Purpose and to purchase a copy, visit www.ncnw.org.