Citizenship Ceremony in Fergus Falls

New American Citizens were sworn in on Thursday July 11, 2019 at a ceremony at the Federal Court House in Fergus Falls, MN.  Four League of Women Voters members: Judy S., &  Florence H., from Park Rapids: Judy from Minneapolis and Joan from Fergus Falls attended the ceremony.  After the swearing ceremony  in our League members  were there to help each of the 16 new citizens to register to vote. Minnesota has seen 8,800 new citizens sworn so far this year. 

Congratulations to the new citizens and thank you to our League members for helping out.

Help LWVPRA Harvest our lost History!

At the end of April League of Women Voters Park Rapids sent 3 delegates to the state League Convention in St. Paul.  We were so inspired by an exhibit of 100 years of League history that League of Women Voters St. Paul put on.  They incorporated the Traveling Exhibit that the LWV Minnesota with the help of the Minnesota Historical Society put together with their own local history: which consisted of  their scrapbooks, an old voting machine, old civic text books plus several posters of a narrative of their own 100 years of Educating Voters posters.

Display of LWV St Paul's History

LWV Park Rapids, the Nemeth Art Center and Hubbard County Historical Society are putting together a “show” in May of 2020 to highlight the Centennial of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote.  The League of Women Voters was officially formed the day after the amendment was ratified. It is not often that an organization reaches its 100 birthday. 

But we need your help. LWV Park Rapids was officially formed in 2000 by 15 women in the area.  A couple of women had been members of League several years before.  But that history has been lost.  Therefore we are seeking out community members who can help us in several different ways:

Search your memories, old family stories and your scrapbooks.

• Do you have any information about the League of Women Voters in Park Rapids before 2000?
• Do you have any stories about women in your family voting for the first time?
• Do you have any posters, campaign buttons or other memorabilia from women candidates in the area?
• Can we find an old voting machine, ballot box, old voter registration, etc?

If you can help us, please visit us at our booth at Crazy Days on July 25th. We will be near the Hubbard County Historical Society whose members will be selling root beer floats.

League of Women Voters Park Rapids Area  (LWVPRA), a non-partisan volunteer organization, whose mission is to encourage informed and active participation in government and influence public policy through education and advocacy.  All our programs are free and open to the public.  Please direct any questions about LWVPRA activities, events to our group by emailing lwvparkrapids@lwvmn.org. LWV membership is open  to men and women and we welcome new members.  Follow our activities, events on our website: lwvparkrapidsarea.blogspot.com/

At the last business meeting on June 12th.. we had 2 of our newer members step forward.   Joel Vohres and Judy Stenger will take over as President and Vice President...Thank you both so much for being willing to take this on, This will  protect our non profit status.

We also have Carol Moen as our new membership chair, Barb Wiebesick  as our new voter registration co chair and Joel will also take over as our Action Chair.

All of our new chairs will be in learning mode for the next season...so the rest of our members need to step forward and offer encouragement and support their efforts.


President and Vice President/Co-President: No candidates have volunteered for these positions, and Carolynne is retiring. She has volunteered to train/help, but we need a couple people to step up.
Treasurer: Sue Cutler will be completing her second year of a 2 year term.
Secretary: Anna Mae Holzworth will be completing her second year of a 2 year term.
Nominations committee chair: Bill Steen and Rhoda Jackson have volunteered & Carter Hedeen will stay on
Membership committee chair: Carol Moen has volunteered.
Action committee chair: Joel Vorhes has volunteered
Voter forum committee chair: CC White has volunteered.
Voter registration committee chair: Barb Wiebesick has volunteered.
Planning and Events Committee: Florence Hedeen has volunteered