Saturday morning, the gallery of La Poste in Perry was once again packed with attendees for the third annual International Women’s Day Coffee.

The event was started by Carol Cavanaugh, and she said it’s been exciting to see the gathering grow each year with both women and men taking part. This year’s event started with presentations by several foreign exchange students, who talked about what the holiday is like in their home countries. There was then guest speakers, including St. Patrick’s Catholic School student Sophia McDevitt, yoga instructor Wendy Goodale, and Des Moines Register columnist Rekha Basu. Cavanaugh said she makes an effort to get a wide variety of orators for the event, though what they discuss is open-ended. “When they ask me what I want them to speak about, I don’t ever give them a topic. I just say, you know the theme for International Women’s Day is celebration and celebrating women’s accomplishments and contributions to society. So I ask them to just speak what they’re passionate about.”

After the program, attendees were treated to a potato bar from Harvey’s at Hotel Pattee, followed by a screening of a documentary on famous Iowa suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt. Cavanaugh felt everything went well for the celebration, and she thanked everyone who had a part in making it possible.