PARK SLOPE — Donald Trump's defeat of Hillary Clinton has given new urgency to an upcoming fundraiser for girls' education, organizers say.
A team of Park Slope girls who host an annual charity read-a-thon for the Malala Fund were expecting this year's event to be a celebration of female power following a Clinton win.
Now it feels more like a protest rally against Trump's misogynist and anti-Muslim rhetoric, said Meg Barnette, the mother of 13-year-old Rosa Lander, one of the girls who created the fundraiser.
"We thought we were going to be celebrating the first woman president," Barnette said. "We thought we were going to be saying, 'Look at what we can do in the world.' But now we’re saying, 'Look at all the work we have to do.'"
Now in its fifth year, Girls Read for Girls will be held this Sunday, Nov. 13 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Brooklyn Museum. Participants will spend 90 minutes reading books of their own choosing and will watch performances by girl-power groups such as Girl Be Heard and Brooklyn Children's Theater.
Rosa Lander's dad, City Councilman Brad Lander, said in a post-election message that Girls Read for Girls is an example of how kids who supported Clinton can funnel disappointment into positive action.
So far 130 readers have signed up and donors have already contributed more than $10,000 for the Malala Fund, the nonprofit started by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girls' education activist who was shot by the Taliban when she was 15.
Despite its name, boys are welcome at Girls Read for Girls, which is open to students in grades 1 through 8.
This year's event will have a more diverse group of readers than ever before thanks to donations that helped the organizers partner with Kensington's South Asian Youth Action group. Community Bookstore is donating "girl power" books and the woman-owned Gowanus business Peeled Snacks is providing snacks.
Rosa Lander said she and all of her co-organizers all backed Clinton, and were devastated by her defeat.
She added that she and the classmates who started Girls Read For Girls with her will move on to high school next year, so they're looking for a new crop of younger students to take over the event.
"We need to have people that are willing to get out there and be the organizers and activists of the next generation and we need to get people fired up," Rosa Lander said.
