On Tuesday, March 27, 2012, the Tallahassee Democrat published a special article on Dorothy "Dot" Binger, longtime volunteer for the Second Judicial Circuit Guardian ad Litem Program as well as author of our Ask a Mentor periodical.
Binger has been honored as a 2012 Trailblazer by the Oasis Center for Women and Girls. Their annual recognition program celebrates "local women who have rewritten history by blazing trails." Binger will be celebrated along with other 2012 Trailblazers at the Women's History Month Community Luncheon on Thursday, March 29, 2012.
In addition to twenty-two years of volunteer service to our program and the children of our community, Binger has forty-five years of teaching experience, fought for salary equality at Pensacola Junior College in the 1950s, was the third employee hired at Tallahassee Community College and helped start Leon County's PACE Center for Girls.
The entire article is presented below in case you missed it. Congratulations to Dot and thank you for your years of dedicated service!
Dorothy Binger has knack for getting good things started
By Bethany L. Young
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Tallahassee Democrat
News
As she speaks, Dorothy "Dot" Binger's voice embodies wisdom and a life that has been fully lived. It is a daunting task to choose where to begin when trying to characterize who she is and what she has accomplished.
Binger was there in 1994 at the inception of Leon County's PACE Center for Girls. At the time, there were only five PACE centers statewide; today there are 17.
Binger served on PACE's Board of Directors from the start, helped hire its first executive director and helped ascertain the building where Leon County's first PACE Center was housed. Binger also served on the PACE Center's State Board of Directors and said that she made certain that the changes she saw on a state level were reflected in Tallahassee.
Binger seems to have a knack for being places when things begin.
"I started at TCC (Tallahassee Community College) as their third employee, first business manager, and planned the business program," Binger said. "I taught accounting that first year."
Each year in March, The Oasis Center for Women and Girls recognizes local women who have rewritten history by blazing trails. Trailblazers are honored for the barriers they have crossed and glass ceilings they have shattered. Binger's dynamic accomplishments have made the road easier for other women to follow. She is a 2012 Trailblazer Honoree.
Along the years, Binger has taught at numerous educational institutions ranging from high schools, to universities, to community colleges. Binger has 45 years of teaching in her background.
Binger has a heart for volunteering and spent 40 years of her life volunteering for Envision Credit Union. Her volunteerism also includes 22 years of service to Guardian Ad Litem.
"I haven't done anything like start a big movement, but I've been involved in trying to make sure that women receive equal treatment," she said.
While employed at Pensacola Junior College in a time when women were mostly thought of as housewives, Binger served on a salaries committee, where the decision was made to base a person's salary on merit instead of gender, which was a great accomplishment in the mid-1950s.
Binger's leadership skills were nourished by supportive parents and a host of teachers that touched her life. Binger believes that raising a leader requires a critical combination of support from parents and educators.
In reference to the importance of Women's History Month and the purposeful, intentional recognition of women's achievements, "It probably will be a long time before we don't need to do this," Binger said. She continues, "We went through thousands of years where, in general, women were just not considered to have the abilities that men had to do the kinds of things that men did. The actual accomplishments of women for hundreds of years were not properly acknowledged and young women today, many of whom would take it for granted, are not properly appreciative of all the shoulders they stand on and what it took to get to this point."
Please join us in celebrating Dorothy "Dot" Binger and the other 2012 Trailblazers at the Women's History Month Community Luncheon on March 29 at 11:30 a.m. at the Lively Cafe at St. John's Church. You can register to attend online at www.theoasiscenter.net.
Binger leaves girls with these words: "Work hard to discover what your true nature is and what it is that you are good in and what it is that you are strong in. (Then) do it with honesty and integrity and the knowledge that you need to be serving others as well as yourself. You never know what small things you do that are totally significant for one other person..."
Written by Bethany L. Young for The Oasis Center for Women & Girls, a nonprofit that aims to "improve the lives of women and girls through celebration and support." Interview conducted by Sarah Sturges. www.theoasiscenter.net. You can contact Oasis through Haley Cutler, executive director, at 222-2747 or haley.oasis@comcast.net
Copyright © 2012, Tallahassee Democrat. All Rights Reserved.
Comments are closed after ninety days.