This is so weird. All of a sudden, I find myself writing about myself, and yet I still have two stories waiting in the wings that I intend to do a part two on.
One of those stories I am waiting to do a part two on is The Where is Baby Carlie, story? Baby Carlie was taken from her grandmother’s arms two years ago during a health visit at Children’s Hospital in King of Prussia. From then until now, the grandmother of baby Carlie, Dr. Tonya Fowler, hasn’t been given any word on how her granddaughter is doing or where she is. I’ve been trying to get someone from DHS or another local agency to share what they can about the Baby Carlie story. I want to be fair. But to date, I’m only getting crickets from the Department of Human Services here in Philadelphia.
The other story I have waiting in the wings is a follow-up on what’s happening at Temple University with Dr. Molefe Asante and Dr . Aaron Smith. I would like to allow the Dean of the Liberal Arts Department to share his side of that story, but to date, I’ve not heard back from him.
Meanwhile, we find ourselves in Women’s History Month, and oh, what a time for celebration.
That’s where I tell a bit of my story and how I have been inspired to create a calendar celebrating Black Women Elected officials from Philadelphia and Surrounding areas.
So here goes.
I have produced a historic keepsake calendar that features 17 African American women elected officials from Philadelphia and surrounding counties. During a press conference at City Hall on Thursday, February 27, 2025, the calendar was unveiled on the second floor in the Mayor’s Reception Room. This calendar is not your run-of-the-mill calendar. “Our calendar starts with the month of February 2025 and goes through the month of March 2026. I would like to take credit for being inspired to create this calendar project. However, truth be told, I was inspired by God to do this project. After the year we all came through last year, watching a super-qualified Black woman run for president and then not win, and watching so many Black women, who were galvanized across the nation to help former Vice President Kamala Harris win the White House, now is the time to re-encourage all our Black women. It is definitely a time to lift up all our Black women elected officials. Beyond that, this calendar will be an inspirational tool to share with little Black girls, teens, and college students, to show them what they can aspire to be.”
“All of the elected officials featured in the calendar (most of them) had a life and careers prior to becoming elected officials. So, when little girls read the bios in the calendar, they will learn that some of these elected officials were social workers, school teachers, college professors, or were in the medical field, lawyers, working in the media, or business owners in their own right. And then, they became elected officials.”
Mayor Cherelle Parker is the first elected official spotlighted in the calendar as Philadelphia’s Centennial Mayor. In attendance at the press conference last week were Philadelphia City Councilwomen Cindy Bass and Jamie Gauthier; also, PA State Representative Darisha Parker participated in the press conference.
To have God give you an idea is one thing. However, you still need funds to make the idea a reality. It was all Black women business owners or organization leaders who became my sponsors to make this calendar a reality. Amongst my top sponsors was Sherri Darden, the publisher and owner of ScoopUSA Media. I thank her and all the women who allowed me to stand on their shoulders as we celebrate Black women elected officials across Pennsylvania. While I was able to get 17 of our Black women elected officials into this calendar, guess what? That’s not all of them. The current Mayor of Harrisburg is a Black woman, and there are at least two other Black women I know of who are Mayors of cities or Boroughs in Pennsylvania. I didn’t mean to leave any of them out–I just couldn’t afford to add any more pages this time.
The calendars are now available for sale at a couple of locations in Philadelphia. If interested in purchasing my historic keepsake calendar, email me at theramartin10@gmail.com. Ultimately, I am working to raise enough funds through calendar sales to go back to my printer and print a couple more thousand. We want the calendars to get into the hands of little Black girls and Black teen girls and even young ladies in college, for free, to inspire them to the heights they can reach.
With all of this shared, let me circle back to the fact it’s now Women’s History Month. Happy Women’s History Month Ladies. From all of us Ladies here at the SCOOP to all of you.
**********
