Inspired Event

INSPIRED is the foundation's annual fundraising and educational event. we present powerful speakers on meaningful topics, giving us the opportunity to network, share lunch, and learn from their wisdom and experience. our speakers have included futurists, athletes, journalists, astronauts, first responders, authors, and civil rights activists...we've even hosted "Oprah's All-time Favorite Guest" who have moved and inspired us. you'll want to mark your calendar to join us for our next INSPIRED Event luncheon!

2020 Inspired Event featuring Sunny Hostin

friday, october 9, 2020  |  11:30 am - 1:00 pm  |  hilton des moines downtown

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"If I can become who I’ve become, anyone can."  - Sunny Hostin

Sunny Hostin is a 3-time Emmy Award winner and has co-hosted ABC’s popular talk show The View since 2016. 

Originally from the South Bronx in New York, Hostin graduated from Notre Dame Law School and became an attorney for the United States Department of Justice. Moving into a position as a federal prosecutor, she received the Special Achievement Award by Attorney General Janet Reno for her prosecution of child sexual predators. 

Hostin’s work as a legal correspondent for ABC’s Good Morning America and for the ABC News Special The President and the People provided her an opportunity to report on some of the most compelling stories of the past decade including the civil unrest in Ferguson and Baltimore, the Bernie Madoff and Bill Cosby scandals, and the George Zimmerman trial. 

A gifted storyteller, Hostin hosted, and executive produced a 6-episode documentary series, Truth About Murder with Sunny Hostin on Investigation Discovery. Her debut novel, “Summer on the Bluffs,” will be released in June 2020. 

Hostin’s own story as a self-described Afro-Latina lawyer frames her perspective on life, family, career, and society. Known for her informed analysis of the law as well as her emotional intelligence, she believes she is not a role model but a “possibility model.”  

Join Chrysalis as we hear from Sunny Hostin about her true calling: to give a voice to the voiceless and “to show that if I can become who I’ve become, anyone can.”  

2019 Inspired Event featuring Dolores Huerta

friday september 20, 2019
nearly 500 guests inspired by dolores huerta

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Dolores Huerta

If you joined Chrysalis for the 2019 INSPIRED Event, you had the opportunity to meet a “living legend” – Dolores Huerta. At 89 years old, Huerta’s passion intensified as she spoke to nearly 500 guests at the luncheon event on September 20.
 
Dolores Huerta urged everyone to follow their own values and uphold what they believe is right. This is where people find their power, she shared, in changing not only their own lives, but changing their communities as well. 
 
Her advice for each of us? Don’t wait to be invited - step up and become an activist. This is how change happens, and why Huerta notes “people who get involved in activism live so many experiences that otherwise they wouldn’t…this is why peoples’ lives are so enriched.”
 
Throughout history are countless stories of activism: people working together toward a shared purpose to actively create change together. As women, we instinctively do this well – we bring people together, amplify their voices, and work toward the good for ourselves and the world around us. Speaking up, teaching a life lesson, promoting an idea, writing a letter to the editor, and intentionally spending our money – for example, not buying goods produced by companies that exploit workers – are exercises of activism that create and sustain movements. And movements lead to change.
 
“Leadership is a choice one makes,” Huerta concluded. “When you choose to give time and resources to participate in community work, that’s what makes you a leader.”
 
While today’s news of violence and conflict can overwhelm us, we cannot let it stop our activism and our commitment to making this world a better place. As women, we’re not finished yet – there is still much to be done, and we can widen the trail that women like Dolores Huerta blazed for us.

screen DOLORES

rebel.
activist. feminist. mother.

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view the trailer

chrysalis was proud to partner with drake university's women's and gender studies department to host a screening of the documentary, "Dolores: Rebel. Activist. Feminist. Mother."

over 100 students, staff, and friends gathered to view the 2017 film co-produced by musician Carlos Santana and actor Benjamin Bratt. the film was directed by Peter Bratt, award-winning screenwriter and independent filmmaker.

as co-founder of the first farm workers unions, dolores huerta is one of the most important, yet least well known, activists in united states' history.