History

The New Agenda- Northeast was founded in the spring of 1986 by Mary Lydon, President of the Massachusetts Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. Mary Pratt, Past Vice-President of the Division for Girls’ and Women’s Sport for the Massachusetts Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Mark Colon, Education Director for the New England Sports Museum. It was based on the National New Agenda, established in 1983 through the efforts and leadership of the National Association for Girls and Women in Sport, an Association of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, and The Women’s Sport Foundation.

The NAGWS granted permission for the use of the name, New Agenda, and plans were developed by the New Agenda- Northeast to hold a New Agenda- Northeast Conference at the Park Plaza Hotel, Boston, on December 6 and 7, 1987.

In 1988 New Agenda- Northeast began its Hall of Fame to honor those women who have helped advance the role of women in sports in the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

New Agenda- Northeast also sponsors the National Girls and Women in Sports Day to celebrate and honor all female athletes.  States and communities celebrate this day with gatherings of athletes of all levels.