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March founder: ‘It’s changed my life for the good’

Hana woman behind world movement last year has been busy being ‘not retired’

Teresa Shook, a Hana resident for 18 years, ignited a worldwide movement with a Facebook event page post last January. This year, she will be attending the Women’s March on the Big Island, having made a commitment before the Maui march was organized.

Teresa Shook was pruning a tree in her Hana yard on Sept. 14 when a branch snapped backward and knocked her off the ladder. She fractured her pelvis in three places and spent a week in the hospital, three weeks in physical therapy and four months avoiding long-distance travel.

It’s probably the only thing that’s kept the retired attorney off her feet within the past year.

Since she sparked the worldwide Women’s March last January, Shook has traveled the country speaking on issues of social justice, accepting awards and doing interviews with journalists from newspapers, TV and radio stations.

“I’m kind of not retired anymore,” Shook said Thursday via telephone from New York. “Really, this is my work now. (The Women’s March) changed my life, but it’s changed my life for the good. I’m honored to be a part. We made history.”

On Saturday, Maui will join cities across the globe to hold another Women’s March, re-emphasizing the wave of women’s empowerment and political activism that spurred more than 500,000 people to march on Washington, D.C., and millions more across the U.S. and in more than 80 countries last January. More than 2,000 people attended the march in Kahului.

“I wasn’t sure there would be the will to have a second march,” said Pukalani resident Robin Pilus, one of this year’s organizers. “The will is there. And as we talked to more and more people, people are grateful. They’re glad to have the opportunity to get together again to celebrate all of the successes that women have had in the last year.”

Shook, who moved to Hana in 2000 from Santa Cruz, Calif., had the idea to hold a march after President Donald Trump’s election in November 2016. She wanted to counter what she saw as Trump’s degrading rhetoric toward women and minorities with a message of empowerment. The Facebook event page she created for a march went viral, and the day after the Jan. 20 inauguration, Shook spoke to a packed crowd on the National Mall.

The message of the march, in Shook’s words, is “a fair, just and inclusive America where everyone is treated equally.” Shook said the march is nonpartisan, and while she agrees it leans Democratic, she pointed out that Republicans and Independents also attended last year.

Two of the biggest changes that Shook and Pilus believe have sprung out of the march are the increase in women running for office and the #MeToo movement, which aimed to counter sexual misconduct after several high-profile entertainment and media figures were accused of harassment.

It prompted women across the industry and in everyday workplaces to speak out, and Time magazine chose the “Silence Breakers” behind the movement as its 2017 Person of the Year. But some have called the movement a “witch hunt” that’s been too quick to vilify the accused.

“I know some people think it’s too much,” Shook said. “I think that the climate is open to support women to speak up, and that’s why so much is coming out now. Because before, they weren’t allowed to speak up, or no one would believe them.”

Shook, a mother to two adult sons, said it’s not about men having to “worry about every single word you say.” There’s a line between normal and inappropriate interaction, and “men know the difference,” she said.

At both the state and congressional level, interest in running for office has spiked amongst women. According to Rutgers University’s Center for American Women Politics, 390 women are running or planning to run for the U.S. House of Representatives, while 49 are eyeing U.S. Senate seats – greater numbers, so far, than in any of the past 25 years.

“All the things that the federal government has chosen to do has just created a powerhouse of women that have not been standing still,” Pilus said. “We’re committed to making sure people know that 2018 is a really key election year.”

Critics of the Women’s March say that marchers need to accept the election results and move on. But Shook said she finds it hard to be silent these days.

“I can’t choose for them, but for me personally, what is happening is not OK,” Shook said. “Minds are being changed daily because of the rhetoric coming out of the administration.”

Shook has watched a groundswell of political activism grow from her home in Hana. Every morning she grabs a cup of coffee and checks the dozens of emails that pour in each day – organizations asking for interviews, people asking how they can help and even an 8th-grader from Chicago who was inspired to do a documentary after the march.

“I’m thrilled with the fact that people are activated and motivated,” Shook said. “That day (of the march) was so phenomenal as far as how it made people feel, and they think it has to be something big and grand like that, and it doesn’t have to be. . . . A small action, when it’s cumulative, makes a difference.”

Aside from all the interviews and appearances, Shook has also started writing a book. On Thursday, she was in New York to do an interview with NBC and to celebrate the release of the latest edition of Whalebone Magazine, a Montauk-based publication that is featuring Shook.

She planned to fly home today to attend the Women’s March on Hawaii island Saturday. (Shook had already committed to the Hawaii island march by the time Maui’s march was organized.)

Maui’s march will run from 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday, starting on the front lawn of the University of Hawaii Maui College. Marchers will follow the same route as last year, heading down from the college along Kaahumanu Avenue, crossing the street at the Queen Ka’ahumanu Center and circling back to the college. The march will feature entertainment and motivational speakers. Go Green Culture Foundation is sponsoring the event.

Pilus said the route is “handicapped-friendly” and that people can bring water, chairs and anything else they may need.

“Remember to pack out all of your trash, including your sign,” she added.

For more information, visit “Women’s March – MAUI” on Facebook or email mauiwomen2018@aol.com.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.

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