BP Adams hosts fourth annual Women’s History Month celebration

Awards Presentation and Workshops Aimed to Help Empower Women

March 31, 2017 By John Alexander Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams hosts Fourth Annual Women’s History Month Celebration at Borough Hall. Eagle photos by Arthur De Gaeta

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On Thursday, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams hosted the Fourth Annual Women’s History Month Celebration at Borough Hall. The event recognized a distinguished group of honorees from various vocations.

A series of workshops were set up to discuss ways to educate, engage, enlighten and empower women, with the focus on entrepreneurship, finance and health.

Ingrid P. Lewis-Martin, senior advisor to BP Adams, welcomed the attendees before turning the microphone over to Gail L. Smith, chief customer officer of MetroPlus Health Plan, a sponsor to the event.

There were two workshops set up in the Borough Hall courtroom. The first workshop, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), described the CEDAW’s work and ways that women can protect their rights and continue building toward gender equality.

The second workshop, U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), discussed a variety of loan programs available to women for very specific purposes. An SBA representative was there to outline the requirements of each plan, and help attendees figure out which programs would best serve their needs.

After the workshops, guests were invited down to the Borough Hall rotunda. They were encouraged to visit individual tables to pick up brochures and talk with representatives from various organizations, including MetroPlus Health Plan, NYU Langone Medical Center and the Kings County Self-Management program.

Adams opened the awards presentation with impassioned remarks about women’s rights. He spoke about the need to end discrimination of all kinds against women. He said that women deserve equal wages in the workplace and should not be treated any differently than men.

He took out a sponge that he said was filled with discrimination, squeezed it and implored women to wring it out, hold their heads up high and go proudly forward.

Honorees were recognized in the fields of education, entrepreneurship, finance, health, houses of worship and technology.