July 2013 Addendum

Current: Happy Birthday to Brienne and Ted!

I forgot to mention in the post about July 2013 that I realized that I would have to move back to help Dad take care of Mom in a couple of years. Upon my return, I told my supervisor at work that I would be looking in to my options to find a good time to leave. I also contacted several friends to let them know about my intention.

I wanted to find out who was willing to take over leading several of the activities that I had been working on and that I did not want to disappear when I left. However, I was also aware that it could be that some of the things I was working on may not be as important to other people as they were to me and would quietly die after I left.

A big one was the Communities of Color Coalition (C3), a community group whose mission is to advocate for underrepresented communities. I had led the group for several years, always seeking someone willing to lead but had come up short. Unfortunately, no one wanted to lead so I reluctantly decided to remain in the chair position another year. Finally, in 2015, Therese stepped in to the Chair position in order to keep C3 going.

One of the projects of C3 is the weekly KSER radio program, Color Commentary, about racism, discrimination, and inclusion. Although during the exploratory phase a number of people had indicated a willingness to make it a reality, when it started I was producing the program alone since February 2013. However, in August, Bo debuted with a 3-part series on the "Community Health Improvement Plan". In September, Ali, an intern at KSER, did a 3-part series on the "Brisenia Flores Vigil". And in December, Barbie-Danielle began a multi-part series on Pacific Science Center exhibit, "Race: Are We So Different?" With Bo and Barbie-Danielle now producing lots of material, it looks like Color Commentary will continue!

Another C3 project was the North Puget Sound Conference on Race which started in 2012. By July 2013, we had just completed another successful event so I was sure I could find someone who would be interested. Ben stepped up to be co-chair, with Alison and Bo providing strong support for the following year. Now in its 5th year, the race conference appears to have become a valued part of the community.

I chose to reduce my involvement in the NAACP, League of Women Voters, the KSER Community Advisory Board and attending the monthly board meetings to keep informed, and the Everett Community College Community Diversity Advisory Committee. I anticipated traveling more thus needing to keep the more limited time I had available focused on C3 and the C3 projects. Besides, I did not want my lack of time to impact an activity I volunteered to help with because I had stretched myself too thin. Better to do a few things well, than a lot of things poorly.