Project 19 Co-Founders Lisa Copeland and Robin Ford with Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr

City and state officials, community members and local business leaders gathered on the Texas Capitol Building’s south steps Tuesday, November 3, 2009 to inspire women across the US to become leaders, which commemorating the 90th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment.

Hosted by the Project 19 Foundation, the event kicked off the group’s Don’t Stop Believing Tour, a nineteen city, ten-month road trip ending at the Nation’s Capitol in Washington, D.C. on August 18, 2010, the day of the 19th Amendment’s ratification. The group’s Tour is designed celebrate a woman’s right to vote by honoring the suffragettes that made it possible, and to raise nationwide awareness that more women leaders are needed across the public, private and nonprofit sectors.  “It has been 90 years since women were given the right to vote, yet only 18% of women hold leadership positions in the United States, which is unacceptable. The Don’t Stop Believing Tour is going state to state to inspire women across the United States to stand up now and do just that,” said Robin Ford, Project 19′s Co-Founder.

Several elected officials were in attendance Tuesday, including Williamson County Tax Assessor/Collector, Deborah Hunt. “We take for granted rights that we have today, and lose sight of those that blazed the trail for us.  It is an honor for me to serve the public as an elected official. I can not imagine what it would feel like to have such passion and not be able to participate in the system in a meaningful way.  I have those that went before me to thank for the ability to serve the public in the capacity of my elected office,” said Hunt.

Another supporter of the Project 19 Foundation’s mission, State Representative Diana Maldonado, spoke at the event highlighting her own personal experience as a state leader and the importance of women having strong female mentors. “The reason we are here is because of strong, principled women who were unwilling to stand by and let the current injustice continue,” State Representative Diana Maldonado said. “I know that if it was not for those brave women, I would not be standing here today as a state representative.”

The hundreds who came to support the event included several high profile men and women including Austin Fire Chief Rhoda Mae Kerr, COO for the Lance Armstrong Foundation Betty Otter-Nickerson, Deputy General Manager of Austin Energy Cheryl Mele, Round Rock ISD Board President Diane Cox and Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, who delivered a proclamation naming November 3, 2009 as The Launch of Project 19 Don’t Stop Believing Tour.

Other remarks were given by Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir, who reminded the crowd of Ann Richards inspirational words, “Ginger Rogers did everything that Fred Astaire did. She just did it backwards and in high heels.”

The event concluded when 90 attendees donated 90 Susan B. Anthony dollars on the Foundation’s behalf to the Voter’s Education Fund.