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Niagara Falls
Friday, March 29, 2024
Editorial: The remarkable women of NOTL
Lake Report staff set up in the middle of Queen Street as NOTL women congregate. DAVE VAN DE LAAR

It was all over in just 15 minutes.

But we hope the result will be remembered for a long time to come.

More than 100 Niagara-on-the-Lake women (105 to be exact) ventured out on a pleasant March morning this week to celebrate women everywhere, but especially those in NOTL.

As we all know, without the daily efforts of hundreds of women – in the arts, as volunteers, in the business sector, numerous NOTL organizations, the agriculture and wine industries, sport and town governance, among others – our town would be a much-diminished place.

And that is why we decided to close down Queen Street and gather together as many NOTL women as we could on short notice (this all came together in less than two weeks) and document them in photos and video in recognition of International Women’s Day, which was yesterday, March 8.

Herding and cajoling and getting the women into place for an artfully composed outdoor photo – and then taking dozens of frames so we’d have just the right shot – was all accomplished in 15 minutes thanks to the co-operation and self-organizing skills of these remarkable women.

The fact that so many of them took the time to come out, to commune with one another, to publicly express their pride in being women – and in making a difference in this community – proves to us that it was truly a worthwhile effort.

The 105 who turned out, and many others who had prior commitments, really wanted to do this, be part of this great group.

And now, having done it, numerous participants told us that once is not enough. They are keen to celebrate women in conjunction with International Women’s Day annually and they want us to make this a tradition.

That was never our intention, initially – but the women have spoken. Who are we to argue?

So, yes, let’s do this again next year. With more women, perhaps in a different location in NOTL (one can’t always count on the weather co-operating in March, though it certainly did on Monday). Stay tuned.

Let’s see if we can get 150, 200, even 500 NOTL women to come out in 2024 and proudly stand up for women everywhere.

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