Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission · 50th Anniversary · 1976–2026
Press Release & Blog — Live Broadcast Update
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PCTWC 50th Anniversary — LIVE BROADCAST Update (release today)

Press release and blog post for the Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission. Fill the [bracketed] fields before sending. Version A is the wire/media release; Version B is the same news in blog voice for the website and social. Short-form snippets follow at the end.

Fill-in checklist before sending - [YOUTUBE LINK] · [LINKEDIN LINK] · [FACEBOOK LINK] → the live-stream URLs (or one landing link: [WATCH LINK]) - [REGISTRATION LINK] → where the last seats can be reserved - [MEDIA CONTACT NAME / EMAIL / PHONE] - Do NOT add the 6:20 surprise guest to any version — the program below is written around her on purpose - Approve or replace the [SUGGESTED QUOTE — for approval] - Hall of Fame: the nine most recent (2025) honorees are named; when the 2026 class is announced, swap in those names in the same paragraph

Framing note: the broadcast is presented as the Commission’s own decision, driven by demand and the significance of the milestone. The gift that makes it possible is acknowledged once, in the Commission’s voice, with the reason it fits — not as a sponsor credit.

VERSION A — PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 24, 2026

Media Contact: [MEDIA CONTACT NAME] · [EMAIL] · [PHONE]

Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission 50th Anniversary Celebration Nears Capacity — Full Program to Be Broadcast Live So the Whole Community Can Take Part

Women’s Equality Day celebration will stream on YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook, and be preserved as a permanent record of the Commission’s first fifty years.

TUCSON, Ariz. — August 24, 2026 — The Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission (PCTWC) announced today that its 50th Anniversary Celebration, set for Wednesday, August 26, 2026 — Women’s Equality Day — at YWCA Tucson, 525 N. Bonita Avenue, 5:30 to 8:00 p.m., is nearing capacity. Because the milestone belongs to the whole community, the Commission will broadcast the full program live so that everyone — in the room or not — can take part.

A limited number of seats remain; reservations are open at [REGISTRATION LINK] until the event reaches capacity.

The broadcast will be carried simultaneously on:

The program begins at 6:00 p.m. (Arizona time); the stream will open shortly before. A recording will remain available on the same channels afterward, creating a permanent public record of the Commission’s 50th year — a first for a body whose earlier decades survive mostly in paper files.

“[SUGGESTED QUOTE — for approval, Chair Kim Fitch: ”Fifty years of this work has been about making women visible. It would be wrong to mark that behind a closed door. Going live means a girl in Ajo, a former commissioner in another state, and the next generation of women who will serve on this Commission can all be in the room with us — and that this night will be there for them long after it’s over.”]”

The live production is being provided as an in-kind gift to the Commission by the Force for Health® Network, a Tucson-based community health and media platform founded by Commissioner Lucy Howell, whose My Girl Power Club began under the Commission’s fiscal sponsorship more than a decade ago. The Commission is grateful for a contribution that meets a real need and reflects a shared commitment to the health, voice and leadership of women and girls.

A program spanning five decades of leadership

Chair Kim Fitch will host the evening. Confirmed speakers include Supervisor Jen Allen, Chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors; Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, who together with Supervisor Allen will present a joint City–County proclamation; and Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher, who served on the Commission in its early years. Tucson City Councilmembers and representatives of the Office of Governor Katie Hobbs and the Board of Supervisors will also be recognized, and the Commission’s culinary partners from Tucson City of Gastronomy will be introduced from the podium. Chair Fitch will close the evening with a call to the community to help shape the Commission’s next fifty years.

The keynote will be delivered by Alison M. Hughes, the Commission’s first Executive Director in 1976. The evening also includes a 50-year retrospective presentation prepared by the Commission’s Presentation Committee and a tribute to the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame and its most recent honorees.

Honoring the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame

The Commission’s history and the Hall’s are intertwined. The Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame was established in 1980 by the Arizona Women’s Commission, the Tucson Women’s Commission (as this Commission was then known) and the office of Governor Bruce Babbitt — making Arizona only the fourth state in the nation with a women’s hall of fame. Today it operates as an independent nonprofit whose mission is to honor, celebrate and preserve the stories of exceptional women who have contributed to the development and quality of life in Arizona.

Because much of the Hall’s work is centered in the Phoenix area, the Commission is using its 50th to introduce Southern Arizonans to the statewide institution it helped create, and to the nine women inducted in the Hall’s most recent class (2025):

Southern Arizonans can explore every inductee, and learn how to nominate a woman for a future class, at azwhf.org.

Guests in the room will enjoy a tasting menu created by four of Tucson’s acclaimed women chefs — Shuka Parker (Shuka Sweets), Angela Garcia (Chula’s Cocina), and Susan Fulton and Mary Steiger (Gourmet Girls Gluten Free Bakery/Bistro) — in partnership with Tucson City of Gastronomy, steward of Tucson’s designation as the first UNESCO City of Gastronomy in the United States.

Fifty years — and the next fifty

The Tucson City Council approved the creation of a Women’s Commission in 1975; the first meeting was held in 1976, and in 1992 the body expanded to serve all of Pima County. For fifty years the Commission has advised the Mayor and Council and the Pima County Board of Supervisors on the issues that shape women’s lives — safety, economic equity, health and wellness, girls’ leadership, and women’s representation in public life.

The Commission enters its next fifty years at nearly full strength. Its one remaining vacancy is expected to be filled this fall, and the Commission is working with its City Council and County appointing offices to complete the full 20-member body by year’s end. Community members who want to support the work — with a gift, by serving, or by attending a meeting, all of which are open to the public — can learn more at pctwc.org.

ATTEND — reserve one of the remaining seats: [REGISTRATION LINK] WATCH LIVE — Wednesday, August 26, 2026, 6:00 p.m. Arizona time YouTube [YOUTUBE LINK] · LinkedIn [LINKEDIN LINK] · Facebook [FACEBOOK LINK]

About the Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission The Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission works to advance equity and equality for women and girls by advising local government, fostering leadership, promoting wellness, and connecting our community to vital resources and support. Its vision is a Tucson and Pima County where every woman and girl has the safety, opportunity, and empowerment she deserves — for herself, her family, and her community. 240 N. Court Ave., Tucson, AZ 85701 · (520) 975-5665 · pctwc.org

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VERSION B — BLOG POST (website / LinkedIn article / email)

The Room Is Almost Full — So We’re Opening It to Everyone

The Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission 50th Anniversary Celebration will stream live on YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook this Wednesday, August 26, Women’s Equality Day. A few seats remain; the broadcast is for everyone else.

When we set the date for our 50th, we hoped the room at YWCA Tucson would fill. It nearly has. We are grateful, and we are also aware that a full room means friends, former commissioners, students and families who want to be there and may not get a seat.

A fiftieth anniversary is not something we get to do twice. So we are opening the doors a different way.

On Wednesday evening, the entire program will be broadcast live on three platforms at once. Watch wherever you already are:

The stream opens a few minutes before 6:00 p.m. Arizona time and runs through the closing remarks. If you miss it, the recording stays up on the same channels.

And if you’d still like to be in the room: a limited number of seats are left at [REGISTRATION LINK]. Once they’re gone, the stream is the room.

Why we’re doing this

Two reasons, and they matter equally.

The first is reach. Fifty years of this Commission’s work has been about making women’s contributions visible. It would be strange to celebrate that behind a closed door. A live broadcast lets a girl in Ajo, a former commissioner who moved to Green Valley, or a granddaughter in another state see Supervisor Allen, Mayor Romero and County Administrator Lesher honor the women who built this — in real time.

The second is preservation. We have spent this year digitizing decades of the Commission’s records so the first fifty years are not lost. Wednesday’s program — the joint City–County proclamation, Alison Hughes’ keynote, the Hall of Fame tribute, the 50-year retrospective — becomes part of that archive the moment it’s recorded. The next chair, and the one after her, will be able to watch it.

How it’s possible

A broadcast of this kind is beyond what a volunteer commission with no staff and a small budget can produce on its own. It is possible because the Force for Health® Network, a Tucson community health and media platform, offered to produce and distribute it as a gift to the Commission’s 50th. The connection is not accidental: its founder, Commissioner Lucy Howell, launched My Girl Power Club from this Commission with the Commission as fiscal sponsor. This is a way of returning what the Commission once gave — and it fits, because the health, voice and leadership of women and girls is the work both share. We are grateful.

What you’ll see

The Hall of Fame we helped start

Here is a piece of our history that even many commissioners don’t know. In 1980, the Tucson Women’s Commission — our own body, four years old at the time — joined the Arizona Women’s Commission and Governor Bruce Babbitt’s office to establish the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame. Arizona became just the fourth state in the country to have one.

The Hall pauses, revives, and today runs as an independent nonprofit with a simple mission: honor, celebrate and preserve the stories of exceptional women who shaped Arizona. Its ceremonies and exhibits are mostly in the Phoenix area, which means many Southern Arizonans have never heard of it — or of the women from our own region it has honored. On Wednesday we will change that, by introducing the Hall and its most recent class, inducted in 2025:

If you know a Southern Arizona woman who belongs on that list, the Hall accepts nominations every year at azwhf.org/nominations. We’d like the next class to have more names from this end of the state.

Guests in the room will taste a menu created by four of Tucson’s remarkable women chefs — Shuka Parker, Angela Garcia, Susan Fulton and Mary Steiger — in partnership with Tucson City of Gastronomy. (You can read about the chefs and their dishes [here: CHEF BLOG LINK].)

One more thing

We enter our next fifty years at nearly full strength — one remaining seat is expected to be filled this fall, and we are working with our City Council and County appointing offices to complete the full 20-member Commission by year’s end. If Wednesday’s program moves you, give, come to a meeting (they are all open to the public), partner with us, or nominate a Southern Arizona woman to the Hall of Fame. Learn more at pctwc.org.

Set a reminder. Tell a friend. Grab one of the last seats or join us from wherever you are — Wednesday at six.

— The Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission

SHORT-FORM SNIPPETS

Facebook / LinkedIn post The room is almost full — so we’re opening it to everyone. 🎥 The Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission 50th Anniversary Celebration streams LIVE this Wednesday, Aug 26 (Women’s Equality Day) at 6:00 PM AZ time, right here and on YouTube + LinkedIn. Supervisor Jen Allen, Mayor Regina Romero, County Administrator Jan Lesher, and keynote by our first Executive Director, Alison Hughes. A few seats remain: [REGISTRATION LINK]. Watch: [WATCH LINK]

Instagram caption Last seats. Every screen open. 🎥 The Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission 50th Anniversary Celebration streams LIVE Wed Aug 26 · 6 PM AZ · YouTube · LinkedIn · Facebook. Reserve a seat or watch — link in bio. #PCTWC50 #WomensEqualityDay #Tucson

Email blast (subject + body) Subject: Almost full — reserve a seat, or watch live Wednesday

Friends — our 50th Anniversary Celebration at YWCA Tucson is nearly full. A limited number of seats remain at [REGISTRATION LINK]. Because this milestone belongs to all of us, the full program will also stream live this Wednesday, August 26 at 6:00 p.m. Arizona time: YouTube [YOUTUBE LINK] · LinkedIn [LINKEDIN LINK] · Facebook [FACEBOOK LINK]. The recording will stay up afterward. See you at six — in the room or online. — Kim Fitch, Chair

One-line media advisory NEARING CAPACITY: Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission 50th Anniversary — Wed. Aug 26, 5:30 PM doors / 6:00 PM program, YWCA Tucson — full program streaming live on YouTube/LinkedIn/Facebook at [WATCH LINK]. Media contact: [NAME / PHONE].

Facebook / LinkedIn post — Hall of Fame angle Did you know the Tucson Women’s Commission helped found the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame in 1980? On Wednesday, at our 50th, we’ll introduce Southern Arizona to the Hall and its 2025 honorees — including Tucson’s own Myra Dinnerstein and Tohono O’odham poet Ofelia Zepeda. Watch live at 6 PM AZ: [WATCH LINK]. Learn more about the Hall at azwhf.org.

Optional on-screen / end-of-stream credit (only place a credit line appears) Broadcast produced and shared as a gift to the Commission’s 50th by the Force for Health® Network.