Honored: 3 Montclair High School Girls Who Changed Presidential Debates

 The Women’s Fund of New Jersey is hosting “Girl Power: Hear our Voice! See our Results! Feel our Impact!” to honor the three Montclair High School girls who started a petition to have a woman moderate at least one of the three presidential debates.

Sen. Nia H. Gill will join Assemblywoman Mila Jasey in presenting the Montclair teens with a legislative resolution; Montclair Mayor Robert Jackson and council also to present teens with awards.

The event to celebrate Emma Axelrod, Elena Tsemberis, and Sammi Siegel will be from 8-10:30 p.m., Oct. 11 at the Bobbi Brown Studio, 8 Lackawanna Plaza in Montclair. The girls have confirmed their attendance. Tickets are $20 for students and $35 for non-students. The organization is encouraging the general public to sponsor students. Tickets can be purchased at www.wfnj.org on the events page. All proceeds will benefit the Women’s Fund of New Jersey (WFNJ), a non-profit that uses the power of philanthropy to advance economic security and social justice for the women and girls throughout our state. 

Emma, Elena and Sammi started two online petitions at change.org after they realized the last presidential debate moderated by a woman was in 1992. One petition was for the Commission on Presidential Debates and the other was for the Democratic and Republican National Committees. Between the two, the young activists gathered more than 180,000 signatures. The Commission on Presidential Debates honored their request and selected CNN’s Candy Crowley to moderate the Oct. 16 presidential debate.

“The Women's Fund of New Jersey is so pleased to have the opportunity to honor Sammi, Emma and Elena for their grassroots advocacy that resulted in returning women to the moderator position at Presidential debates,” said Michele Tuck-Ponder, the organization’s executive director. “As the only organization in New Jersey focused on the pursuit of social justice through education and training of women and girls in public policy advocacy, we are inspired by their willingness to take on this significant cause--and be successful. By recognizing their success, we hope to send a message to all women and enlightened men in the Garden State - get involved, get informed, be engaged and change will happen.”

The WFNJ event will be both a celebration of the girls’ efforts and a debate watching party. The vice-presidential debate, which will be moderated by Martha Raddatz, Senior Foreign Affairs Correspondent for ABC News, is from 9-10:30 p.m. that night. Because of a scheduling conflict, the event couldn’t be held on the night of the presidential debate, but this will give the WFNJ a chance to promote the presidential debate on Oct. 16.

The WFNJ is asking for donations to help sponsor this event. Letters went out to a number of Montclair business owners, but anyone is welcome to help fund this event. Tax-deductible checks can be mailed to: WFNJ, 145 West Hanover St., Trenton, NJ 08618. For more information, call (609) 393-3752, ext. 25.

This information is from a press release from the Women's Fund.