Please join the Wilton League of Women Voters virtual meeting on December 10th featuring several participants in the inaugural Ms. President US/Wilton program. Ms President US is a non-partisan, non-profit, community-based initiative, dedicated to inspiring and preparing girls in grades 4 though 8 to aim for the highest civic leadership positions and to know they can achieve them. The program seeks to teach the girls the importance of female involvement in public service, and both the responsibility and opportunity public service provides. Through the program sessions, girls learn about public speaking, polit​ical diplomacy, listening skills, local/state/federal government, and women’s history while having an opportunity to meet and greet exemplary female leaders. High school mentors work with the participants in each session. The program will culminate with a campaign and election for M​s President US/Wilton. Recent speakers at the meetings have included Kim Mellin, co-director of the Wilton Historical Society, First Selectwoman Lynn Vanderslice of Wilton, Themis Klarides, current minority leader in the Ct House of Representatives, and Ct. State Senator Mae Flexer. The Wilton program is the first formal chapter being launched through a replication process aimed at creating a template for local chapters to be established in additional locations. More information on the Ms. President program is available at https://www.mspresidentus.org/. The Wilton LWV is a founding supporter of the program. If you are interested in attending the December meeting, reply to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and a unique ZOOM meeting link will be sent to you.

The League of Women Voters is a non-partisan organization that strives for an informed and engaged community. It specifically encourages active voter participation and works to increase understanding of government and major public issues.

The Wilton League of Women Voters continues its mission to inform voters by co-sponsoring two major voter forums for state and federal candidates.

On Tuesday, October 13th at 7:00 pm, the Wilton League of Women Voters, the Wilton Library Association, and GOOD Morning Wilton will co-sponsor two Ct State legislative candidate debates between Will Haskell (D) and Kim Healy (R/Independent) for Senate District 26 and Stephanie Thomas(D/Working Families) and Patrizia Zucaro(R/Independent) for House District 143.

The Haskell/Healy forum will run from 7:00-8:00pm and the Thomas/Zucaro forum will run from 8:30-9:30pm. Both will be livestreamed from Wilton Library’s Brubeck Room. Please note: following current protocols there will be no live audience in the building. The debate sessions will follow a modified town hall format moderated by Marianne Pollak of the Stamford LWV who will present questions submitted by the public to the candidates.

The WLWV is soliciting questions ahead of the debates via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Questions for Haskell/Healy will be accepted until 7:15pm and questions for Thomas/Zucaro will be accepted until 8:45pm. Here are some important guidelines for submitting questions: anonymous emails will not be accepted; only one question can be submitted per email; all questions must be applicable to all candidates and pertinent to state issues; questions targeted at one specific candidate will not be accepted. All questions will be screened for legibility, duplication, and may be combined or condensed.

GOOD Morning Wilton has arranged to livestream the debates online. They can be viewed live in real time on GOODMorningWilton.com. In addition, the event will be recorded for later viewing at GOODMorningWilton.com, www.wiltonlibrary.org, and elsewhere as available.

On Sunday October 18th at 4:00 p.m., the Ct. League of Women Voters, the Westport Library the Wilton League of Women Voters, and other Leagues within the district will sponsor a candidate forum between Jim Himes (D) and Jonathan Riddle (R) for the 4th Congressional District. The format will be moderated by Kay Maxwell of the Ct. League of Women Voters and publicly live-streamed from the Trefz Forum at the Westport Library. Registration is required on the Westport Library website. Constituents will be able to submit written questions upon registration at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and thereafter up to the day of debate. Consistent with League guidelines, constituent questions will be screened by LWV (one screener from each major party) for clarity, non-duplication, and applicability to both candidates.

The LWV is a non-partisan organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. For general voter information, and for future events and speakers sponsored by the Wilton League of Women Voters or for membership information, check the League website.

Join the Wilton LWV Tuesday, September 22nd at 7:00 pm for a virtual opening meeting of
2020-2021. The meeting will begin with guest speaker Meredith Ramsey, Wilton High School Social Studies teacher. Ramsey will be discussing her recent participation in the Harvard Case Method Civics Workshop, an initiative formed to bring case method teaching to high schools to deepen students' understanding of American history and democracy.

Based on the highly successful experience of Harvard Business School and other graduate and professional programs that use case-based teaching, the method encompasses 22 cases based on historical documents that can be employed to strengthen high school education, and ensure a more exciting, relevant, and effective experience for students and teachers across a range of subjects. The case method can be especially successful at engaging students with topics in history and democracy, and it has shown to present a unique opportunity to help reverse the broad decline in civic education and civic engagement in the United States.

Since 2017, 50 League chapters from 22 states have sent over 80 teachers to the workshop. The Wilton LWV is participating in this initiative and committed to sponsor Ramsey for the 2020 workshop

RSVPs are required by emailing This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. in order to receive the ZOOM meeting link.

NEW, EXPANDED “I VOTED” STICKERS. Expanded to include a diverse sampling of activist women from across the state who worked for passage of the 19th Amendment.

Most of Wilton CT’s planned events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment were upended by the pandemic. So today, the Town’s First Selectwoman and many Wilton organizations are posting virtual ‘I VOTED’ stickers on their social media platforms. These ‘digital stickers’ are not the generic flag version voters are familiar with. Instead, the series consists of six designs, most with images of Wilton women who fought for equality in the late 1800s/early 1900s — Grace Knight Schenck, Hannah Raymond Ambler, Alice Merwin Eakland and more. Republicans and Democrats alike fought for equality at the ballot box. The posts include short captions explaining the women’s contributions.

Because of the changes in voting this year — the expansion of voting by absentee ballot and the move to ‘contactless’ in-person voting, the idea of giving out ‘I VOTED’ stickers at the polls was shelved and the project transitioned to a digital format. Wilton organizations are posting these digital files on their Facebook and Instagram pages and distributing them to their respective members/databases in time for the August 11th primary election and again on November 3rd for the general election. Wilton voters are invited to upload, post and share the images on their preferred social media platforms for friends and neighbors (and the world) to see. We hope this encourages others to vote as well as educate themselves on the suffrage movement locally and nationally. Perhaps this effort will inspire others to celebrate their own local suffrage history.

Wilton’s First Selectwoman (Lynne Vanderslice) and CT’s Secretary of State (Denise Merrill) are participating in this project, along with the Wilton Historical Society, the Wilton Library, the Wilton League of Women Voters, the Wilton DTC, the Wilton Garden Club, the Wilton YMCA, Ambler Farm and Weir Farm, to name a few. Ms President USA will also participate, an organization that helps empower young women not yet able to vote.

The project was initiated by Pamela Hovland, a Wilton resident, graphic designer, faculty member at Yale University and a long-time visual activist. Pamela collaborated with Julie Hughes, archivist at the Wilton Library History Room and Peggy Reeves, a former Democratic Registrar of Voters in Wilton, a former State Representative, and the former Director of Elections for the Secretary of the State’s office, now on staff focusing on voting access.