$3.5 million needed to save ‘Rosie the Riveter’ factory
A Michigan nonprofit group is scrambling to raise $3.5 million by Thursday to save the “Rosie the Riveter” plant, a World War II-era factory west of Detroit.
The Willow Run Bomber Plant churned out thousands of B-24 Liberator bomber planes during the global conflict. It employed thousands of women, including Rose Will Monroe, a Kentucky native who later became a symbol of female empowerment.
Monroe starred in a film and was the public face of the thousands of women who took up factory jobs during World War II when men were deployed to war.
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Posters from the era show Monroe rolling up her sleeve, arm flexed, with the slogan, “We can do it!” printed atop.
The Michigan Aerospace Foundation is looking to raise a total of $8 million to save part of the plant and convert into a new home for the Yankee Air Museum, its sister organization. The foundation has already raised $4.5 million, it said.
The remaining amount, $3.5 million, must be raised by Thursday.
“Time is short, the fund-raising goal ambitious, and the stakes high,” the foundation said on its website.
Organizers of the campaign “Save the Willow Run Bomber Plant” say $50 will help preserve one square-foot of the historic factory.
They are banking on the cachet of Rosie the Riveter to spur donations:
“Just as the Willow Run workers helped win World War II, we can do this!” the foundation said in its fund-raising plea.
Monroe died in 1997 at the age of 77.
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