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Honoring Sally Ride
Photo courtesy of Johnson Space Center
In the summer of 1983 Sally Ride and I were both in space. She was orbiting the world aboard the shuttle Challenger and I was over the Moon, having just started my own marketing communications firm. The comparison ends there of course, but not the connection. Some 20+ years later we met, working together on a project for NASA to keep young girls interested in science.
We shook hands, sat down, and got to work but what I found remarkable was just how unpretentious she seemed. Here was a genuine hero — the embodiment of intellect, courage, and grace — and yet her sole focus, her clear passion, was how we could ignite sparks of curiosity and fires of self-respect among millions of girls who didn’t know her name or achievements and didn’t yet know their own potential.
Photo courtesy of Goddard Space Flight Center
The result of that work was a poster, published and distributed to schools by NASA, depicting 12 women (Sally declined to be included) who were world-renowned scientists. For each we showed the often indirect and circuitous routes they’d taken from elementary school to scientific prominence. The underlying messages were simple: There’s no one path to achievement and no one is excluded from the journey. Of course Sally herself personified those truths.
I still have some copies of that poster and I can think of no better way to honor Sally’s memory than to put them into the hands of young girls beginning to explore their world. So if you know of someone who could use the reassurance that different doesn’t mean excluded and the present need not limit the future, let me know and I’ll send you a copy. Because 29 years later, it’s time to launch some more young women into space.
Lucinda Crabtree
lucinda@crabtreecompany.com
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