SANTA PAULA : 7 Women to Be Honored Tonight

Santa Paula will honor seven of its most prominent women tonight in the city’s first women’s history night celebration.

Ventura County’s second oldest city will celebrate the achievements of Eleanor Crouch, Santa Paula’s first woman mayor; Gwen Dewey, an aviator; Celia Diaz, a local businesswoman; Angela Dominguez, a longtime activist for the Mexican-American community; Dorothy Pinkerton, former principal at Glen City School; Dorcas Thille, a rancher, and Grace Sharp Thille, Santa Paula’s first woman doctor who died in 1979.

Event organizers say the dinner and ceremony at the Masonic Temple in Santa Paula will not only highlight the women’s achievements, but give girls in the community something to which they can aspire.

“I have two daughters and I’d like for them to see that women are doing things and are being honored for the extraordinary things they are doing,” said Wanette Jauregui, a Santa Paula Elementary School District board member and one of the event organizers.

Jauregui said she and fellow school board member Janet Grant had talked about holding such an event for the past few years, but never got around to organizing it until last month. They rushed to hold the celebration in March because it is Women’s History Month, she said.

The event begins at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 per person, with all proceeds going to support Santa Paula High School Grad Nite ’94. For information, call Grant at 525-4968 or Jauregui at 525-4527.