We celebrate the holidays and end 2015 with a tribute to the suffragists, who gave so much to ensure women would get the right to vote.

It was our pleasure to interview the leaders of the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial Association: Executive Director Pat Wirth and honorary board member and historian Edie Mayo. Along with dozens of others, they are working hard to build a monument close to the Fairfax County, VA, spot where women were imprisoned.

“Our vision is to raise awareness and funds to create a memorial that will reflect the strength of these women and the significance of their struggle,” explains Wirth, pictured far left below. “We are now raising funds to complete construction and have the national memorial fully operational by 2020, the 100th anniversary of the passing of the 19th Amendment.”

The garden-style national memorial will be grand, adds historian Edie Mayo, shown far right in adjacent photo. “It will commemorate the suffrage struggle; educate, inspire, and empower present and future generations to remain vigilant in the quest for equal rights.”

Scroll down to read our interview with Wirth and Mayo in this issue of Grateful American™ Magazine. — David Bruce Smith, founder (shown center in above photo), and Hope Katz Gibbs, executive director (standing)