I was flipping through yet another fun and fabulous edition of Make It Better when I realized that the people I’ve been meeting over the past year would make a fascinating, relevant and timely story for the magazine.
Last month, I attended a “Women for Pollak” event at the Holiday Inn on Touhy. It was a fun yet serious forum where women with small businesses from Chicago and surrounding suburbs could meet new clients, discuss important issues and the November ’10 elections–specifically Joel Pollak versus Jan Schakowsky, both running for the 9th Congressional District. As a first generation Hispanic woman, and a lifelong Democrat who voted for Jan in ’06 & ’08, I was asked to speak about why I was supporting Joel, a Republican.
In addition to Joel, two women in particular made an impression on me that day and since: Ashley Kain and Julia Pollak. Ashley, Campaign Manager for “Pollak for Congress”, is a New Trier High School alum from Glencoe who earned a degree in Education from Denison University and a graduate degree from Denver University. Julia is Joel’s wife, a biracial woman born in South Africa and Harvard undergrad who now lives in Skokie.
So what’s a “nice Jewish girl from Glencoe with a degree in Education” doing managing a highly competitive campaign for Congress? Well, Ashley will have to give you the details, but it was inspiring and funny to hear her relate the story–and stories since then!
With her South African accent and exotic beauty, Julia fascinates most everyone. She is not only brilliant (an Economics degree from Harvard), she’s daring. She joined the Navy Reserves as an Aviation Structural Mechanic.
These women have shown my girls, 5th & 6th graders, how they are working to “Make It Better” for us here in the 9th District. Fascinating and inspiring stuff!
Thanks, Jasmine Hauser
