Sixth-graders honored for efforts to establish national holiday

JACOB KEPLER/VIEWDestiny Carroll, left, and Hannah Low perform a play they wrote about the fight for women?s suffrage at the Henderson Multigenerational Center, 250 S. Green Valley Parkway. The Miller Middle School students recently were honored for their efforts to establish National Suffrage Day. Advertisement

Miller Middle School students Hannah Low and Destiny Carroll have received the highest honor from the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge for their efforts to make Women's Suffrage Day a national holiday.

The foundation presented the girls with the George Washington Honor Medal earlier this month. They also received a $100 savings bond.

"We put together a scrapbook of all of our pictures and us in Washington, D.C.," Hannah said.

The scrapbook, which was given to the Freedom Foundation for judging, also included photos and information about the sixth-graders and the 31/2 years they have spent trying to bring awareness to women's suffrage.

Hannah said this is important because so many women worked for so long.

"Women worked really hard to get the right to vote and equality," Hannah said.

Destiny and Hannah were third-graders at Glen Taylor Elementary School when they read "The Time for Courage" by Kathryn Lasky and started their campaign.

The students took their idea to U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., who is working with the girls to make July 19 a national holiday. The girls presented Berkley with a petition signed by 250 people in favor of the holiday.

"I was at swimming and got my team and teachers to sign," Destiny said.

The U.S. House of Representatives already has unanimously approved legislation that honors the women's suffrage movement. Hannah's mother, Jodi Tyson, said that although the legislation passed in May, Berkley brought it in front of the House again last month to keep the girls' efforts fresh in people's minds.

The Freedoms Foundation National Awards Program honors recipients who have an understanding and appreciation of responsible citizenship and the benefits of a free society. It has honored exceptional work since 1949.

Through a selection process based on quality and content, recipients are chosen to become part of a historically prestigious group of American citizens that advance the American ideal.

With Tyson's help, the girls recruited a few friends and started performing a play about women's suffrage. During the past two summers, the girls got a grant to get a professional script and director, costumes and signs so they can continue to put on the show for years to come. They have performed the play at Henderson recreation centers and the Galleria at Sunset mall.

The girls said they will keep working until they have their holiday.

"Until there's a free day from school," said Megan Watkins, a Miller Middle School student and actor in the play.