CHAANGE CITY HALL

CHAANGE CITY HALL
BY
Gary Dennis

The month of October has been another fun filled month for CHAANGE/San Joaquin Valley. Gary Dennis and Cynthia Sterling got a chance to air out there differences in what was a delightful and enjoyable phone discussion. I think that Sterling finally got a chance to see the perspective of the community on this issue and is more willing now to offer help and support to make this campaign come to life. Marlin Ezell got a chance to hear hands on how community residents felt at the October 8th CHAANGE Makers meeting. To me, it was a beautiful moment to see the dialog between him and community residents on this matter, a life change moment I have to say. It is moments like these CHAANGE exist, to connect community residents with their leaders so that their voice is heard and empower the community to have an impact on the laws and issues that matter most to them. Out of this discussion, an important decision was made. CHAANGE Makers had asked Marlin Ezell to talk to Cynthia Sterling about a support letter that would validate all the time that these individuals had put into the billboards and show that Cynthia Sterling does indeed support the billboard campaign and all that CHAANGE is trying to accomplish in spite of her financial restriction due to the “No Neighborhood Left Behind” program which has tied up most of her spending.

With all that being said, CHAANGE/San Joaquin Valley is continuing on with its billboard campaign and is taking this matter to the City Council. Even though Sterling of her own budget may not be able to supply this campaign alone, CHAANGE hopes that the city council may be able to assist in making this come about. This will a wonderful opportunity to see how the rest of our city leaders fair on this subject. This will be the first time this city council has been addressed on this issue so it should be interesting to see how things pan out. We are on the agenda for Tuesday October 19, 2004 at 9:30am. We’ve invited as many people as possible to make a good showing at a historical moment in Fresno’s history. We’ll keep you posted as things develop on this issue.

One last thing, our next CHAANGE Makers meeting will be Friday November 5th at our office, 1584 N. Van Ness (southeast corner of Van Ness and McKinley just south of Fresno City College) from 1pm to 3pm. We are always in need of volunteers so if you have some free time and feel strongly about HIV/AIDS issues, come lend a hand and help out. We are always open to new ideas and community input these issues. And know this, it cost money to run this program so donations are always welcomed! Make checks out to CHAANGE/San Joaquin Valley and send them here to our office. Thanks for your time and support !