The American Rosie Movement

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PROJECTS

Check Out The Projects

(click “Star with solid fill” on the map to view the details of the project)

The American Rosie Movement™ (ARM) lets you to show the projects you do to advance the Rosie Legacy.

                                  Please click the following link to view a PDF of the past Rosie projects:  Past Rosie Projects

View Community Projects

You can see how Rosies are pulling together by viewing the community projects

View Projects

Add Your Project

Showcase your quality work on the site by completing the project submission form.

List Project

Remember, pull together, do quality work, keep a cooperative spirit, and do something that is SASSY. 

 Ads

 Charleston, WV,  2009

Description:

Rosies read the newspaper. Ask your local paper to run an add at no cost to you. Offer to give them a list of advertisers –companies in your community that you think will buy an advertisement. The Charleston Gazette ranthis ad for us in 2009. I found us 14 Rosies in a week, and now , with people like you, we are launching a National Rosie the Riveter Movement. Estimated cost to you: Only your time, unless you pay for the advertisement.

 Health Education
Maxine Marshall

Description:

Rosies are living examples of longevity. They care about a healthy America. Maxine Marshall was an office worker in Baltimore, married a man who was taken as a prisoner of war at the Battle of the Bulge, and now helps Lions Clubs International teach
diabetes prevention. She is diabetic and tells that the pig was the first animal used to make insulin. Also in the photo are Lora Hammack with the West Virginia Dept. of
Agriculture, and her son Garrett, who helped raise the pig, which he named, “Rosie.”

Estimated cost for you to contribute: Health fairs and events often welcome Rosies to speak up about
taking care of yourself at no cost. (Be sure to practice with Rosies so that they and you can make the
best presentation.)

Name it, “Rosie the Riveter”

Huntington, WV,  Nov. 2015

Description:

This is the first government building in America to be named, “The Rosie the Riveter Building” is in Huntington, West Virginia on the grounds of a factory that made precision optics during the war.

Estimated cost for your contribution:The owner of the building may pay for signage and a plaque. If you hold an event, that may be expenses for food and photographers.

Film/Video

California Institute of the Arts, 2012

Description:

Video of Rosies can be of their interviews, of their work today, of events and more. Check our website at thanksplainandsimple.org for examples.

Our documentary film, called “We Pull Together: Rosie the Riveters Then and Now” was filmed by Tijah Bumgarner, who got a BFA in film at California Institute of the Arts, and directed by B.J. Gudmundsson.

Estimated cost for your contribution: Videographer’s fees vary from $25-90/hr for taping and editing.

Birthday Party for Ruth Edwards

 Greensboro, NC

Description:

Birthday party for Ruth Edwards. The box on the table was made from the floor of the factory ran on to take messages from one work station.  Ruth was called an “expeditor” at this factory within a bigger factory in South Charleston, WV while her fiancé was a prisoner of war in the Pacific.

West Virginia Rosies Thanked by Allied Nations

Washington D.C. 2009-2010

Description:

Two Allied Nations—Britain and Belgium—have thanked American Rosies at our invitation. You can help us keep these important events going. Speeches by Allied Nations are historic, photos are priceless and community spirit is very high. Most of all, Rosies are honored, and they teach us what they know.

Art by Edie Lyons and Mary Lou Maroney

West Virginia

Description:

Edie Lyons painting another Rosie, Mary Lou Maroney. Edie worked in many locations during the war keeping records of construction, pilot trainees’ performance and more. Mary Lou worked with medal for airplanes in Detroit, and then joined the Navy, making her a veteran.

Banners

St. Albans, WV, May 26, 2012

Description:

Banners are a great way to remember an event. Be sure to leave enough white space for Rosies and the public to sign it, and keep it safe for a historic record.

Bluebirds for Rosies

Brunswick, MD

Description:

This project is very popular. Bluebirds are native to North America only, and they symbolized hope during the war, especially in many songs. After you have interviewed a Rosie, be sure to ask her to help hang the boxes if she can. You can put her name on the box—a wood burning stencil burns her name permanently into the nest box.  Be sure to keep a record of where you put the nest boxes, and clean them out every fall.

Dance

St. Albans, WV

Description:

The arts are a great way to pass Rosies’ legacy to the youth of the future. The girls in the St. Albans Dance studio have a routine that they often perform in the Charleston, West Virginia area. Here, they are getting to know the Rosies. They have since performed this routine at several other venues.

Red Star Community

Honolulu, HI

Description:

Working to be Model Rosie Community by Labor Day, 2022

Rosie Interviews

Los Angeles, CA

Description:

Operation Confidence cares deeply about veterans transitioning to civilian life.  Under the direction of Consuella Mackey, they invite us to interview Rosies ever-other week.

“Ring a Bell for Rosies”

Philadelphia, PA, Labor Day

Description:

The Chapel of the Four Chaplains has been a leading organization to help promote the American Rosie Movement. The Chapel hosts an annual “Ring a Bell for Rosies” event each Labor Day and holds other ceremonies to celebrate Rosies.  Recently, they held a ceremony for June Robbins, a Philadelphia Rosie, when she received her high school diploma, based on her lifetime of work and helping a family member graduate from college. June left high school as a 17-year old to work at the Navy Yard in Philadelphia during the war.  The Chapel of Four Chaplain’ is to promote selfless service and interfaith cooperation.  Their motto is: “Unity without Uniformity”.

Several Philadelphia organizations are coming together to paint a mural on a large wall in downtown Philly, with the design expected to include Rosies and veterans of many backgrounds.

Red Star Community

Youngstown, OH

Description:

Working to become a Model Rosie Community.

Mississippi Maritime Museum

Pascagoula, MS

Description:

Working to become a Model Rosie Community.

Events

Elkview, West Virginia

Description:

Large or small events are appreciated by Rosies and the public. Martin Luther King Day at a library allowed Gladys Reese to tell the story of what it was like for an African-America woman to work in a defense factory in the Detroit, Michigan area during the war.   Elvin Campbell(far right), a veteran who grew up in Washington, DC, helped describe the changes she witnessed in America since she was a metal worker during the war.  They both feel that (with the right projects) America will pull together around the Rosies.  (Ask us for a recording of this event.)

Interviews

Hagerstown, MD

Description:

Interviews can be by the media, but don’t reply on that. To assure accuracy, your education and America’s need to save more Rosies’ stories, conduct interviews of Rosies and get others to interview Rosies, as well. Be sure that interviews are recorded and transcribed accurately. Veterans will often help you.

Crena Anderson riveted cargo planes in Hagerstown, MD. She married a Pearl Harbor survivor and took care of other Pearl Harbor survivors. Here, she is being interviewed by the founder of “Thanks! Plain and Simple.”

Letters

South Charleston, WV

Description:

In the interest of our historical record and in order to foster deeper understandings between people letters are very important. You can help find those from the past and write letters today to Rosies, Leaders, and others.

Examples are:
Letters written today by Rosies and their support, Letters written during the war, and Letters written to Rosies today.

Monuments

Washington, D.C.

Description:

Monuments can be in parks or stand alone. They can be large or small. After helping to design two monuments, Rosies we asked decided on a smaller, less expensive, “ready-made” monument for their first park. Inscribed quotes were contributed a Medal of Honor recipient, Woody Williams, and Rosies. The monument meets our goal to keep things SASSY. Many Americans think that Rosies deserve a notable monument in Washington, which you might help advance.

Parks

St. Albans, WV

Description:

The first park that Rosies helped plan and design is in Saint Albans, West Virginia. We consider it the First Rosie the Riveter community park in America, because Rosies helped choose its location, design, plants, and grand opening.

If you create a park, get the Rosies involved, from the ground up, so that the location and design represents their work from the past to the future. Be sure to ask city, county, state, and federal parks if they will provide the land and the maintenance. Also, be sure to include veterans.

Public Service Announcement

Huntington, WV

Description:

Rosies can be very good at delivering television and radio messages that are good for the community, including announcing a Rosie the Riveter Project in your community. Here, Dot Finn is making a Radio PSA.

Quilts

St. Albans, WV

Description:

Here, these are quilts designed by a group of Rosies to represent their history of quality workmanship, scarce resources during the war, their feminine nature; their concern for veterans, their belief in pulling together, and their concern that many Rosies be included.

Trees

Huntington, WV, July 6, 2010

Description:

Here, a fir tree was planted by veterans and Rosies from America and Britain on July 6th, 2010. Rosies chose a dogwood, which a World War II veteran bought for the occasion.

Victory Gardens

Dunbar, WV

Description:

Families grew their own vegetables for their own food and to save food for the troops.
The artist, Sally Steranko, is from the Pittsburgh area, where much steel was made during World War II. She is now an artist in California.
Stephanie Lanham, a young woman in Dunbar, West Virginia, is working with her community to include a Victory Garden in their community garden.

Red Star Community

Utah, USA

Description:

Working to be Model Rosie Community by Labor Day, 2022

Books

Lansing, Michigan

Description:

When you interview a Rosie, you can help her create a book that tells her story, the company where she worked, what was happening at home and on the front; Then, as well as other information that will help her leave her story meaningfully to others.

We are currently editing a book with 26 Rosies as contributors, which will be online soon. Here is one photo that Garnet Kozielec, who riveted airplanes in Michigan and in California, has contributed.