10 Amazing Milestones in 30 Years of WAND and 20 Years of WiLL

This August, WAND kicks off an exciting anniversary celebration: 30 years of WAND and 20 years of WiLL! Throughout WAND/ WiLL's exciting and distinguished history we have made some serious progress. Check out this list below for a list of 10 amazing milestones in the past 30 years.

• On January 22, 1982, what is now Women’s Action for New Directions (WAND) was founded as the Action for Nuclear Disarmament Education Fund (AND), as well as the Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND) 501c4 and WAND PAC.  Later in 1982, the name of the Education Fund was changed to Women’s Action for Nuclear Disarmament (WAND).
• In its first year, 1982, WAND received over 6,000 pieces of mail after founder Helen Caldicott appeared on the Merv Griffin show and the Phil Donahue show.
• WAND took an active role in advocating for the nuclear freeze campaign through correspondence and participation in the Citizens Lobby for a Nuclear Weapons Freeze in Washington, DC in March of 1983.  The grassroots pressure from the nuclear freeze campaign eventually resulted in significant arms control agreements between the United States and the Soviet Union.
• In January 1985, WAND established a Washington, DC office for the purposes of lobbying and collaboration with other groups on nuclear issues.
• WAND commissioned The National Survey on Arms Control in 1986, which included half-hour telephone interviews with 1,008 people all around the country.  With the results of this survey, WAND published “Turnabout:  A WAND Education Fund Report."  This report was the result of 9 months of work and more than 1,5000 hours of research, interviews and analysis.
• WAND took part in widespread protests against the MX missiles, contacting individuals and groups in almost 50 congressional districts where House members voted for the nuclear freeze but also for development of the MX missile program in 1983.  Due to fierce public opposition, George H.W. Bush cancelled the program in 1991 and in 2005 the United States retired the last MX missile.
• The Women Legislators' Lobby (WiLL), was founded as a program of WAND in 1990.  In its first year, WiLL had 145 members in 41 states.
• In November 1991, the WAND Board of Directors voted to change the name to Women’s Action for New Directions.
• In 1997, WAND and WiLL members joined Peace Action on Capitol Hill with faux money-covered models of a B-2 bomber to protest additional funding for the B-2 bomber.  A day later, Congress voted not to fund additional B-2 bombers.
• WAND worked towards ratification of the New START Treaty by sending over 1,3000 e-mails to senators, organizing over 50 meetings with U.S. Senators on Capitol Hill or in their home states, and publishing hundreds of letters to the editor and opinion editorial pieces in different online news sources throughout the country.  The New START Treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate on December 22, 2010.