Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Cyndi Lauper)

This song came out in 1983, when I was in my final year of college. I wouldn't dare post a picture of what I looked like then. My goodness.

But the song was an immediate anthem to the free spiritedness of girls and young women everywhere. Cyndi Lauper was such a quirky thing herself, but the song just made you want to sing along.

I was reminded of this song today when I received the following note from my friend Eli who runs the Maine's Women's Fund:
"Your donation to our Evening to Honor Maine Women and Girls enabled 5 girls -- who wouldn’t otherwise be able – to attend the event. These girls are participants in A Company of Girls – an after school program for disadvantaged girls in the greater Portland area that uses theatre and the arts to explore self-identity and promote healthy development and self-esteem, a grantee of MWF.
Our photographer managed to get these two shots which I thought you would get a kick out of."

Eli is shaking things up at the Maine Women's Fund, and her board seems psyched about it. I had the honor of meeting with them earlier this fall. Maine is often viewed as a place "up there" where everyone is squeaky and healthy and white and doing just fine. But it's a complicated place. It's big and it's geographically, racially and ethnically diverse, and women there - just like in virtually every state or major metropolitan area - struggle disproportionately. Eli and her team - and other great people in Maine - are hell-bent to change that.

These girls are the future of Maine. Right now they need a decent education, a safe place to call home, good role models and guidance about how to make good choices. In a few years they will want to have decent jobs, even safer places to live, affordable health care, and maybe a few bucks in their pockets.
Oh, and they will still just wanna have fun.

Cindy Lauper - Gir...