'Rosie' tours prove popular

·  National park honoring World War II icon can't keep up with the demand

By John Geluardi

STAFF WRITER
Contra Costa Times

Article Launched: 08/19/2007 03:04:11 AM PDT

The popularity of Richmond's Rosie the Riveter national park was largely unknown until the first-ever summer tours quickly booked up, and the waiting list grew to 300.

Park employees were so overwhelmed with calls from around the Bay Area that they scrambled to add two additional tours, which also filled up immediately.

"There have been groups calling who want to bring their own buses, and they just want us to supply a guide, which we don't have the personnel for yet," said park interpreter Betty Reid Soskin. "And that's in addition to the family groups of four, five and nine."

Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park consists of numerous official locations, mostly on or near the city's waterfront, and dozens of unofficial sites. The tour takes visitors to Kaiser Shipyard No. 3, with its five historic buildings, a 220-ton wartime whirley crane, the SS Red Oak Victory ship and five dry docks where the Rosies helped build and launch ships.

Park tours offer rich insight into life in Richmond during the war through documents, artwork, welding artifacts and even fashions of the day, which includes a near-mint condition wedding dress worn by a Rosie.

The tours became public for the first time this year, and the response is a clear sign that the park has captured the public's imagination.

The last tour is scheduled for Aug. 31, after which, park officials will buckle down to finish planning the Home Front Festival by the Bay, a three-day celebration of the new park with arts and crafts, street theater, music, children's activities and a lot of food. Festival events begin Sept. 28 and will go right through the weekend.

Perhaps Rosie the Riveter park looms large in the public imagination because World War II was the incubator for so many of the things we accept as standard in our day-to-day lives.

"During the war, we see for the first time women joining the workforce in substantial numbers, racially integrated assembly lines, the first pre-paid health care system and government-sponsored child care, which was the progenitor of the Head Start program," Park Superintendent Martha Lee said. "These things grew into powerful social movements after the war, and here in Richmond, we have rich examples of how those seeds were planted."

Rosie herself has become a powerful national image that evokes strong, independent and competent women. If you have any doubts, consider this: When U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi was sworn in as the first female speaker of the House, she wore the "We Can Do It" button, which depicts a determined Rosie with her denim sleeves rolled up over a well-muscled arm.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is employing the same image, though she has swapped out Rosie's face for hers and emblazoned it on campaign T-shirts, buttons and coffee mugs

"I'm not sure why the park has become so popular," Soskin said. "I think Rosie has always been a part of Richmond's past, but now it is becoming part of the nation's history."

Contact John Geluardi at 510-262-2787 or jgeluardi@bayareanewsgroup.com.

ROSIE INFORMATION:

PARK WEB SITES: http://www.rosietheriveter.org and http://www.nps.gov/rori

BETTY REID SOSKIN'S BLOG: cbreaux.blogspot.com

"UNTOLD STORIES" VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc490zRLWMA

The big fundraising event for Rosie the Riveter Trust at the upcoming Home Front Festival-by-the-Bay in Richmond will be held at the edge of the Bay in the dramatic, glass-enclosed Craneway of the historic waterfront Ford Assembly Building, where tanks were outfitted for World War II.  “Think Big" — a Kaiser Exhibit,” will be on display for the first time in Richmond. This is the first event ever to be held in the restored craneway!

If you or your business would like to attend the gala dinner and help support Rosie the Riveter Trust, contact the following for tickets or table sponsorships for “Launching of Rosie the Riveter” at the future site of the National Park Service’s Visitor Education Center by being a sponsor. Your generosity will be recognized in the program.

 ·        Rosie the Riveter:  $5,000 table of 10

·         Rosie the Welder: $3,000 seats for 6

·         Rosie the Electrician: $2,000 seats for 4

·         Rosie the Pipe Fitter: $1000 seats for 2

Individual Seats are $150 (These are not sponsor level and are not acknowledged in the program).  For acknowledgement purposes, we ask that potential sponsors respond by August 17th. Contact:

Jane Bartke                                                   

Launching of Rosie the Riveter Event Co-Chair                                           

510.235.1315

Omabartke@aol.com