Loveland residents, local officials celebrate women past and present at Day to Celebrate Women

Jane DeDecker, Mayor Jacki Marsh and others spoke about women throughout history

Loveland Reporter-Herald

By Austin Fleskes

Loveland artist Jane DeDecker, speaks to a crowd at the A Day to Celebrate Women event at Fairgrounds Park in Loveland May 1, 2022. DeDecker was a central focus of the event, honoring her work to raise the voices of women and commemorate women’s history. (Austin Fleskes / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Fairgrounds Park in Loveland was packed with Loveland residents and local officials Sunday afternoon, all gathered to celebrate the life and hard work of women past and present.

The event, known as A Day to Celebrate Women, served as not only a way to pay homage to the dedication of history’s women who fought for the right to vote but also to celebrate Loveland artist Jane DeDecker, who was recently named USA Today’s Colorado Woman of the Year and the first artist chosen as part of the coming Women’s Suffrage National Monument.

DeDecker, who has spent the last several years working to share the story of women throughout history through her sculptures, was one of many who came out to speak before a large crowd Sunday afternoon, all of whom gathered to uplift the stories of women and ensure their dedication to progress was not forgotten.

“I am humbled to be among this group,” DeDecker said, sporting a shirt that read “women of the year” to recognize the work of all women throughout history.

The event was put together after a Loveland City Council proclamation named May 1 as A Day to Celebrate Women in Loveland.

Loveland Mayor Jacki Marsh and councilor Andrea Samson both spoke to the crowd Sunday afternoon.

Loveland Mayor Jacki Marsh speaks to a crowd at the A Day to Celebrate Women event at Fairgrounds Park in Loveland May 1, 2022. Marsh spoke about the rise of women in legislative positions across Colorado, noting Larimer County especially has a strong representation of women in office. (Austin Fleskes / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

Marsh touched a bit on the history of the 19th amendment and the history of the fight for voting rights as well as a woman who inspired her, recognizing Rosa Parks as an inspiration.

Marsh also spoke about the rise of women leadership in Colorado, with more and more women serving in local positions. She acknowledged the importance all women who have risen to serve, adding these local leaders owe this ability and success to the “female pioneers who came before us.”

“We are well represented on the rise,” she said.

Samson spoke specifically about the importance of the right to vote, given to all American women through work of the suffrage movement more than 100 years ago to pass the 19th Amendment.

“Voting is so essential,” she said. “It is the air we breathe. It is not a choice — you get your ballot you have to vote, you have to. Especially for the thousands of women who even lost their lives over the right for us to vote as women in particular.”

Throughout the nearly hour-and-a-half event those gathered also got to experience some of the artistry of women’s history, with poems read by local residents as well as former Loveland Poet Laureate Veronica Patterson as well as the new Poet Laureate Lynn Kincanon; there was even a small play from Maggie DeDecker, Jane’s sister, and her daughter Bella Rey about Albina Washburn, a Loveland woman who played a role in the suffrage movement.

Maggie DeDecker, right, and her daughter, Bella Rey, perform a small play about Albina Washburn at the A Day to Celebrate Women event at Fairgrounds Park in Loveland May 1, 2022. Washburn was a noted suffrage worker who lived in Loveland. (Austin Fleskes / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

But while the day celebrated all women and the work they have put forward, a great deal of time was given to speak about DeDecker and the work that she has done to share women’s history; many of those who spoke thanked her directly for all that she had done.

Anna Laymon, executive director of the Women’s Suffrage National Monument Foundation, said it was the privilege of a lifetime to be at the event Sunday to celebrate DeDecker and discuss the suffrage monument. She said she was honored to name DeDecker as the first project artist, adding that she is happy that her vision and her heart will be part of the monument.

Laymon said the ongoing project is working hard to memorialize the stories of America’s women in the nation’s capital just like Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., who have standing monuments in Washington, D.C., today.

“These are kings, these are titans of our history and they deserve that place on the Mall, but so do we,” she said. “Women’s stories aren’t lost anymore. We are going to bring women’s history to the National Mall because of supporters like you.”

DeDecker, who received a standing ovation as she took the microphone, spoke about her own story and what has inspired her over the years.

She said she has gotten to watch the art community of Loveland grow, adding that she knows the art that Loveland values so much can effect change and “has unified this community and is a visible reflection of who we are.”

Speaking about her work on the Louder Than Words sculpture project and the suffrage monument, DeDecker said she has done studies of historic women and shared their history through sculpture, many of which are in her study at home.

From left to right, Lynn Kincanon, Suzanne Janssen, Veronica Patterson, Jane DeDecker, Jacki Marsh, Irene Josey, Kim Redd, Andrea Samson and Anna Laymon stand for a picture at the A Day to Celebrate Women event at Fairgrounds Park in Loveland May 1, 2022. All of the women spoke during the event. (Austin Fleskes / Loveland Reporter-Herald)

“Commemorating women has been more than my life’s work,” she said. “It has become a calling to raise their voices.”

DeDecker described the monument as a physical reminder of “where we have come from and a guide to where we need to go.”

She said, though, that there is more work beyond her art and the monument that needs to be done to continue to empower and raise up the voices of women. She said that in discussing the centennial anniversary of the 19th Amendment with a friend, she described the legislation and its history as “merely a green light for women to go.”

“Our daughters need us, our democracy needs us, world peace needs us and the planet needs us,” she said. “Women need to be more prevalent in the decisions being made, not just in Colorado.”