We Make Change: Community Organizers Talk About What They Do--and Why

Acknowledgments

ix Acknowledgments At the risk of making our thank-yous as long as the book itself, we want to acknowledge the wonderful help and support we have received from many sources. First, of course, we thank our families—the parents who brought us up to work for a better world and the children whom we hope we have taught to do the same. Second, we thank the people who have helped guide us in our professional paths to this point: Paul B. Wice, Stuart J. Miller, Ellen Ruffolo, Earl Durham, Bruce Gottschall and Michael Schubert, Zsuzsa Foltanyi, John McCutcheon, and Hazel Clave. Others who offered advice and guidance for this project were Dave Beckwith, Dick Couto, Steve Fisher, Randy Stoecker, Rich Wood, Henry Allen, Deepak Bhargava, Seth Borgos, Mary Dailey, Gary Delgado, Pablo Eisenberg , Don Elmer, Gaye Evans, Kim Fellner, Andy Mott, Spence Limbocker, Pete Myers, Diane Ives, Charles Marsh, Mary Katherine O’Connor, Regina McGraw, Ben MacConnell, Gary Sandusky, Walter Davis, Zoë Lane, Greg LeRoy, Herb E. Smith, Jill Carson, David Rubinstein, Barbara Ehrenreich, William Greider, Sandra Mikush, Kathy Partridge, Lee Winkelman, Paul Loeb, Karen Waters, Wende Marshall, William Dietel, Idelisse Malave, Cathy Lerza, and Chuck Savitt. We are grateful for the financial support this project received from the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, French American Charitable Trust, Needmor Fund, Marguerite Casey Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, ­ Ken­ deda Fund, and Entelco Foundation. Gayle Williams and Tom David were willing to support the project when it was just an idea, and Diane Fenney, Dave Beckwith, Cris Doby, and Steve and Ann Stranahan joined along the way. We couldn’t have written this book without help from our trusty typist/­ transcriber, Claire Jolly. We are grateful for the special talents of graphic designers Bev Sell, Kathy Reese, and Fred Schneider, and photographer Erin Garvey. Thanks to Larry Yates for providing lots of photos, to Laura Ramirez for photos and technical help, and to Joell Smith-Borne, Dariel Mayer, and Wendy McAnally for their extra efforts in putting this book together. x   We Make Change We’d like to thank the Virginia Organizing Project (VOP) interns, students, and others who reviewed chapters, helped with transcribing, made suggestions, and kept us humble—notably Allen Cooper, David Barish, Maya Stewart-Silver, Zora Tucker, Colleen Unroe, Mike Gifford, Kathryn McKinney, Helen Dempsey, and students in the University of Virginia Principles of Organizing class, Fall 2004, and their professor, Andrew Lawrence. We appreciate the efforts of Connie Muscenti, Jennifer Niesslein, Gail­ Leondar-Wright, Betsy Leondar-Wright, and Sue Havlish in helping to spread the word about We Make Change. Worthy of gratitude, too, are colleagues at the Virginia Organizing Project who allowed Joe to take a sabbatical for this project: Frank Blechman, Barry­ Butler, Brian Johns, Michele Mattioli, Jan May, Laura Ramirez, Ellen Ryan, Bev Sell, Ben Thacker-Gwaltney, Octavia Ware, Cathy Woodson, and Larry Yates. Thanks also to VOP leaders Jay Johnson, Andy Kegley, Denise Smith, Jason Guard, Sandra Cook, Del McWhorter, Jon Liss, Markell McPhearson, Mary­ Randolph-­ Preston, and Laura Lawson. And we honor other friends, mentors and former colleagues: Nick Allen , Joey Childers, Joe Chrastil, Will Collette, Jerry Hardt, Billy Horton, Terry­ Keleher, Burt Lauderdale, Maureen O’Connell, John and Jean Rosenberg, Chuck Shuford, Patrick Sweeney, the staff of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville , Virginia, and all the outstanding activists and leaders we have worked with over the years. Special thanks to stalwart friends Dominique and Roger Micallef, Michele Whiting, Nathalie Guiral, Priscilla Wynn-Brown, Sylvie leManchet, Rebecca­ Hugot, Emily Dreyfus, Mary Newton, and Karen and Kelsey Waters for their love and support during the year of writing. And, of course, to the organizers in these pages whose work gives us hope. ...