Celebrating Successes of Women

March is Women’s History Month and women’s achievements will be celebrated locally in speech, song and art.

* Rep. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) will be the keynote speaker at the 13th annual Creative Options Day on Saturday from 8 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. at Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

More than 65 workshops--ranging from self-defense to sexual harassment, career planning to family issues--will follow Boxer’s talk. Registration fees are $18, $9 for students and senior citizens. Space is limited. Call the Cal Lutheran Women’s Resource Center at 493-3345 for information.

* History will come alive when “Women’s History: A Patchwork of Many Lives� is staged at the annual Women’s History Luncheon and Awards Program at 11:30 a.m., Saturday, March 14, at the Radisson Suites Hotel, Oxnard. Admission is $18.

Sponsored by the Ventura County Commission for Women, the musical drama is based on the lives of Abigail Adams, Molly Pitcher, Harriet Tubman and Susan B. Anthony. Reservations are required by Saturday; call 985-3068 for information.

* Youngsters, too, will get to know women in history, courtesy of the American Assn. of University Women.

Members of the Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley branches of AAUW will visit area classrooms to portray famous women, including Cherokee chief Wilma Mankiller, poet and champion of immigrants Emma Lazarus and mountain climber Annie Smith Peck. For information about these presentations, call 495-4470.

* Other events during the month include art shows by Elisse Pogofsky Harris and Carol Rosenak at the Ventura College galleries and by women students at the Women’s Center at Moorpark College.

* Oxnard College will recognize local women for their contributions at a “History Makers� luncheon on Friday, March 13. Call 986-5814 for information and reservations.