Washington DC June 18, 2022 Coordinator: Suzanne Zilber
Sponsoring Committee: Racial Justice Leadership Team
The Poor People’s Campaign seeks empowerment of the 140 million people in the US living in poverty. The movement reflects an omnibus vision to restructure our society from the bottom up, recognizing that in order to build a true Third Reconstruction we must simultaneously deal with the interlocking injustices of systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation and the denial of health care, militarism and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism that blames the poor instead of the systems that cause poverty. This project fit with the congregation’s justice priorities.
Work on this project started 3 months prior to the primary event. Many people contributed to the success of this project and are listed in the narrative of the process.
Outcomes: *11 participants in Washington DC from our congregation
*$680 donated to the Ohio Poor People’s Campaign
*Yard sign still present that says “Fight Poverty not the Poor”
* 73 congregational Side with Love t-shirts purchased for future justice witness actions
Budget: $500 – went to yard signs, donations, and some poster supplies – The budget was designated to ensure members could go to DC if they wanted to or to support poor people to ride the bus and other costs.
The Congregation donated $200 to the Ohio Poor People’s Campaign via the budget from the Racial Justice Leadership Team. Another $125 was donated for a free bus ticket for a low income rider. Laura Imbornoni donated an additional $155 to pay the going rate of a bus ride when she donated. Suzanne donated $200 directly by getting official flyers made early on. Total = $680
Special thanks to Pat Dillard, Rev Randy Partain, Kay Ritter, Debbie Wright and Aaron Pearl for their greater involvement!
The rest of the text is more detailed about who did what, how things were done, and the experience of the March.
Marketing:
Announcements for the weekly email for the Moral Monday March in Cleveland started after March 7th, as well as for the main event in June. Debbie Wright collaboratively posted the submissions. Several people attended the March 14th event at Trinity Cathedral downtown to include, Laurie Albright, new attendee Yoande Smith, Rev Randy Partain, Suzanne Zilber, and Suzanne Zilber’s husband Adin Mann.
After March 14, posters were put up on bulletin boards and a sign was up at the main entrance of the building. Suzanne passed out flyers in the Narthex as congregants entered for Sunday services from March 20th on for a few weeks. Weekly email notices continued with the assistance of Debbie Wright. Some flyers had information specific to people attending our congregation. Some flyers had information on poverty in Ohio and another had the demands of the campaign.
Randy made several references to the importance of the March in their sermons and in announcements to encourage participation and t-shirt purchasing. Randy was also helpful in identifying and coordinating around a testimony being given on Sunday morning.
Suzanne asked Aaron Pearl to give a testimony about the PPC at a service due to his experience living in poverty and he did an excellent job – Sunday May 22, (4 weeks prior to event) It would be good to have that happen earlier next time as the bus prices go up closer to the event.
T-shirts:
Suzanne learned that the newly merged congregation did not yet have t-shirts and arranged, with the volunteered help of Kay Ritter, to have t-shirts made. Kay designed them and they were printed by a Black-owned business, The Exclusive Touch, as recommended by Pat Dillard. T-shirts were priced low at $15. Suzanne purchased sample t-shirts for sizing at her own expense, which may be refunded by the owner. Shane Millette taught Suzanne how to handle the money and Don Stimpert made sure it was all balancing up. 71 pre-orders were taken. The business missed our deadline and the apologetic owner gave us $50 off and personally delivered the shirts to Suzanne’s door when they were ready. Three shirts were given free to the office administrator and two members of low income, so the $50 refund covered those shirts for us. Fortunately, Kay and Suzanne were able to get shirts to people who were going to participate in the Pride event in Geauga County on June 18 in addition to the PPC travelers. Unfortunately, Suzanne’s travel to her UU camp, and people being gone for GA slowed the distribution of the shirts after June 18. We had an unusual situation on June 26 due to the GA service.
Sign-making:
Debbie Kuehm gathered supplies to make signs for a sign making party, and Ken Kuehm ensured the room was unlocked for us. However, some participants did not want to have signs or were obligated to help with the picnic or freecycle take down, so only two of us took advantage of Debbie’s work. Dell Salza was sad she could not attend and made us a very large yellow sign with black lettering that said Unitarian Universalists Cleveland and had our logo on it. That sign is now at the congregation building in a closet ready for more events.
The Trip:
The people who represented us in DC were Laurie Albright, Brian Larson, Pat Dillard and her grandson Ethan Kole, Cat White, John Bacon. Mark Weber, Felisa Anthony, Suzanne Zilber, her husband, Adin Mann, and her son Aaron Mann. Trevor Van Hoy really wanted to attend in DC, but his work schedule could not be changed. Pat Dillard graciously served as a bus captain. We are not aware of congregants watching the event online. A photo of Suzanne with the large sign and UU’s from across the country and one of her husband and son made it into the UUSJ email newsletter.
The bus ride to the event was not crowded but after the snack stop, many did not wear masks. Fortunately, the three of us that rode did not contract COVID. However, the bus ride back was significantly delayed for reasons that should have been predictable, and Pat and her grandson did not get back to Cleveland until 7 AM. Pat still felt it was worth it! It is not clear if the campaign will use Rally.co again in the future.
The campaign reported 150,000 people in attendance at the Assembly and more than a million streaming live. The location was very safe. There were plenty of porta-pottys. The March was barely a march, and it was wise to bring chairs. UUCC folx were not together as some preferred to stand or sit or wander so John Bacon never got a full group shot of us! Laurie Albright posted some photos to the People of UUCC Facebook group. The speakers were well planned (no long breaks), representing most of the states, and there was good music. The campaign provided some pre-printed signs with slogans we can post at the building and/or take with us to rallies.
Coordinator Role:
Suzanne attended some Racial Justice Leadership Team meetings to get consultation about how to proceed with this project. She kept Nancy King-Smith and Pat Dillard apprised as things went on by email and Pat Dillard was a particularly available and helpful consultant.
Suzanne attended a weekly one hour Zoom meetings on Wednesday nights to keep up with changes to the Campaign plans and coordinate with others. The meetings included poor people, allies, and people from across Ohio and Kentucky. Suzanne arranged to have yard signs printed for us and others and delivered them to other users and some businesses. The Campaign paid for the signs that did not go to us. The two yard signs on the south side of the tree lawn were up for several weeks and then they were taken away or disposed of, rather than placed on our main property. We have one remaining sign on our property. It is possible that the PPCampaign will prioritize getting yard signs made due to positive outcomes this year- it started conversations!
Sue Lencewicz, the bookkeeper, was very efficient in sending Suzanne reimbursements.
Suzanne feels grateful for all the assistance and enthusiasm the congregants and staff offered for this project.
Forward Together!
Suzanne