Springfield Women's Commission schedules March 6 International Women’s Day program focused on education

The Springfield Women’s Commission agreed to hold an International Women’s Day recognition event on Thursday, March 6, at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall and set “education” as the event theme.

The decision came during a planning meeting held on Zoom in which members discussed honorees, program format, donations and logistics. Caitery, a Springfield Women’s Commission member, said, “We’re going to be doing, an event for International Women’s Day recognition event. We’re gonna do it at city hall this year. And we’re looking at March 6, 3:30 and our theme is education.”

Why it matters: the commission intends to recognize educators and education-related contributors — including a new superintendent, a paraprofessional leader and a student — and to use the City Hall venue to make the program accessible to staff and parents. Commissioners said the program will be short (about an hour to 90 minutes) and include proclamations, flowers and brief tributes.

Meeting discussion and decisions Commission members proposed three to five honorees: the city’s new superintendent (to be invited), the head of the paraprofessionals (identified in the meeting as Catherine Mastriani), a teacher representative, and a senior student, Ayanna Rodriguez. Ayanna Rodriguez, identified in the meeting as a high school senior who helped organize a recent neighborhood event, said, “I donated those,” when asked about floral arrangements previously used for a community program.

Members agreed the format should limit speakers and favor brief introductions and tributes rather than a long series of speeches. Councilor Tracy Walsh, who identified herself during the meeting as vice president of the City Council, agreed to introduce one of the honorees and to provide a short historical introduction to International Women’s Day if needed.

Logistics and assignments - Date/time: March 6, 3:30 p.m., City Hall (selected to allow teachers and commission members to attend after school). The group discussed March 7 or March 8 as alternatives but settled on March 6 to “beat the rush” of other events. - Program: brief welcome, short historical introduction, introductions of honorees, proclamations, floral tributes and light refreshments; estimated program length was discussed as about one hour to 90 minutes. - Donations/funding: Commission members discussed soliciting donated flowers and refreshments. One member said she would check whether an unused $500 education stipend could be applied to the event and would run that question by city counsel/attorney Steve Bonnakoni. - Outreach: Commission staff/volunteer Sean was asked to send an email invitation from the council office and to post flyers at City Hall; members agreed to put emails in the meeting chat so organizers could collect contact details. Members volunteered to contact potential honorees, the florist (Knotts Urban Community Florist in Indian Orchard), and local school representatives.

Next steps and follow-up The commission set its next planning meeting for Feb. 11 to review confirmations and donations. Members were assigned outreach tasks: contact the superintendent’s office to check availability, reach out to Catherine Mastriani (paraprofessionals leader), contact the student honoree Ayanna Rodriguez and approach Knotts Urban Community Florist about a possible donation.

No formal vote was recorded; decisions were made by consensus during the planning discussion. Organizers said final confirmations (honorees, donations and the use of any stipend funds) would be reported at the Feb. 11 meeting.