On Saturday, September 20, 2023, Rosie the Riveter Trust celebrated its 24th anniversary with the Trust’s Annual Fundraising Gala at the Craneway – the best one yet!. Rosie the Riveter Trust is the nonprofit partner of Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park and works closely with the National Park Service to provide funding, programs and projects that supplement those that the National Park Service provides.

Figure 1 - 2023 Annual Gala Program

The history of Rosie the Riveter Trust is intertwined with that of the park itself. In the early 1990s, the City of Richmond adopted a policy of allocating 1 percent of public works capital projects budgets for public art. Councilmember Donna Powers’ mother-in-law worked in one of the childcare centers built to serve the shipyards. Donna wanted to sponsor a piece of public art to honor the women (“Rosies) who worked in the Richmond shipyards. She formed a committee that ultimately circulated a nationwide RFP for an artist to create a piece of public art. That project became the Rosie the Riveter Memorial.

While this was going on, Donna had a conversation with Congressman George Miller in which he asked if there was anything he could do to help. Donna replied that a museum would be nice. George started looking into it but was not at first encouraged by the National Park Service. The Park Service suggested that he sponsor legislation to designate Rosie the Riveter Memorial as a National Park Service “affiliated site,” something that would bring some recognition but little else. It took an act of Congress just to approve just the feasibility study, but he got it done.

By that time, 1999, Donna had decided to retire from politics and chose not to run for another term. She asked me if I would become the “champion” of the Rosie the Riveter efforts that she had started, and I agreed. As the National Park Service proceeded with the affiliated site feasibility study, I became their go-to liaison with the City of Richmond. As they got deeper into the study, they realized that what happened in Richmond and the substantial amount of still intact infrastructure had a prospect far beyond an affiliated site. They became excited to recommend that a National Historic Park be created in Richmond to interpret the WWII Home Front. But to feel secure in their recommendation, they needed to know that the City of Richmond supported the effort and was committed to being a partner.

They gave me a to-do list of things that needed to be done, including (1) Placing the intact shipyard-related buildings and other infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places, (2) adopting a robust Historic Preservation Ordinance that would provide some measure of protection for the historic sites designated as part of the park, and (3) starting a 501(c)3 nonprofit to partner with the National Park Service once the park was established. We completed all three in 1999, including chartering the Rosie the Riveter Trust.

With the support of the City Council, we quickly accomplished the first two, and along with two others, including Donna Powers, we became the founding board members of Rosie the Riveter Trust, and I served as its president (and de facto volunteer executive director)  for the first eleven years, until we had the resources to bring on professional management.

In 2000, Congress passed legislation, and President Bill Clinton, signed it, creating Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park.

The first superintendent, Judy Hart, was also assigned all the other National Park Service sites in Contra Costa County, including the John Muir National Historic Site, Eugene O’Neil National Historic Site and Port Chicago Naval Magazine National Memorial. Judy had no employees and was loaned a small office by Supervisor John Gioia. The Contra Costa National Parks now has a staff of over 30, and the Rosie the Riveter Trust has an annual budget of over $500,000. Funding comes from the bookstore and gift shop at the National Park Visitors Center and generous donations from unions, foundations, public agencies and businesses, including the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, California Commission on the Status of Women, City of Richmond, Kaiser Permanente, the Lesher Foundation, Chevron, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and hundreds of other businesses, labor unions and individuals.

Some of the projects and programs Rosie the Riveter Trust has undertaken include:

• Rosie's Service Corps - In collaboration with the National Park Service at Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park and the City of Richmond, the Trust uses “Rosie” history to inspire members of Rosie’s Service Corps with the value of collaborative work, strength in serving others, and a daring vision of women’s careers. Rosie's Service Corps is comprised of: Rosie’s Career Preparedness Program focuses on career education and awareness, as well as an introduction to the trades, power tools, and learning power skills. Students participate in “We Can Do It: SMART Goal Setting” and “Power Tools for Building a Resume”, as well as Financial Literacy. Students have the opportunity to meet guest speakers from the trades and non-traditional work opportunities, attend field trips, and participate in career fairs. Rosie’s Service Corps Summer Camp: A 5-week camp for 12–15-year-old girls/girl-inclusive youth aimed at building self-confidence, career skills, and trades training, as well as exposure to the outdoors and a wider horizon for what young girls can be and can do in their lives.

• Every Kid Outdoors - Our Every Kid Outdoors program (formerly known as Every Kid in a Park) provides thousands of fourth graders with a chance to learn important WWII and social change history, a healthy one mile hike on the Bay Trail, and an opportunity to understand the joy of the outdoors and the need to protect natural treasures like San Francisco Bay. Every child also receives a one-year pass to visit any national park for free with their family. The Trust brings more than 1200 children from underserved classrooms to the park each year by providing funding for bus transportation. For many, it’s their only field trip in a school year.

Figure 3 - Every Kid Outdoors

• School Programs and Education For Teachers - Thanks to the National Park Foundation’s Open Outdoors for Kids grant, we have created hybrid programming (part in-person as Covid allows and part virtual) for 4th-8th graders with the mission to connect students, teachers and `

Figure 4 - School programs for teachers

• Rosie the Riveter Trust funded acquisition of the The Ed and Saryl Von der Porten Collection, a collection of over 1,800 WWII-era artifacts that are part of the museum collection at Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond, CA. The Von der Portens spent several decades building this collection of Home Front memorabilia that includes books, war bond and ration materials, toys, models and model kits, newspapers and magazines, household and decorative items, posters, and military souvenirs. Their passion and appreciation for history and material culture resulted in an incredible collection of artifacts that will remain an important part of the WWII American Home Front legacy. You can view many of these objects by visiting: Home Front Households: The Playroom

• No Time to Waste — The Urgent Mission of Betty Reid Soskin - Betty Reid Soskin is an iron-willed American woman who became a national park ranger at age 85. The great granddaughter of a slave, Betty has lived a life filled with painful and often humiliating memories… yet she remains a defiant voice of hope. No Time to Waste examines Betty Reid Soskin's mission to restore critical missing chapters of America’s story. The film follows her journey from kitchen stool in a tiny theater to media interviews and international audiences who hang on every word she utters. The 50-minute documentary captures the 97-year-old park ranger's fascinating life pathway -- from the experiences of a young worker in a WWII segregated union hall, through her multi-faceted career as a singer, activist, mother, legislative representative and park planner to her present public role. At the Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park, Betty illuminates the invisible histories of African Americans and other people of color, and her efforts, charted in the film, demonstrate how her work has impacted the way the National Park Service conveys such history to audiences across the U.S. The Trust has set up a fund to ensure that Betty's message in the film, aimed at forming a more perfect American union, are heard. We will be distributing this important film to television and classrooms and need your help!

• Living History: The Ambassadors of Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park - A moving documentary that explores the passion and determination behind the WWII Home Front women who, as "Rosies", became the ambassadors for the "We Can Do It!" story and worked at the forefront of the creation and success of the national park in Richmond, California. This documentary was made possible through a grant from "The Fund for People in Parks" in partnership with the Rosie the Riveter Trust and the National Park Service.

• Rosie the Riveter Trust rehabilitated and owns the historic Maritime Child Care Center, part of Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park that serves as part of the Richmond College Prep Charter School. One of the largest facilities of its type in Richmond was the Maritime Child Development Center, opened in 1943 to care for the children whose parents worked at the nearby Kaiser shipyards. Rosie the Riveter Trust completely restored and reopened it as a multi-use building in 2011 (a Richmond revitalization effort). Today the Maritime houses a small exhibit by the National Park Service of a wartime preschool classroom, the Rosie the Riveter Trust office and Richmond Charter Prep preschool and elementary school.

Figure 7 - Maritime Child Care Center

• Rosie the Riveter Trust successfully applied for a save America’s Treasures grant that funded a feasibility study leading to the rehabilitation of the Riggers Loft in historic Shipyard 3, part of Rosie the Riveter WWII Home Front National Historical Park.

Figure 8 - Riggers Loft
The Gala on September 20 featured as inspiring keynote speaker Erica Ames, a “modern day Rosie” and Delta airlines pilot.

There were over a dozen genuine “Rosies” present, mostly ranging from 98 to 102 years old. Each was introduced and her story told.

Figure 10 - Rosie Connie Rangel Gomez

The gala ended with a lively auction that raised tens of thousands of dollars for Rosie the Riveter Trust programs.