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Healdsburg Kiwanis thanks
EDITOR: On March 25, Palm Sunday, the Healdsburg Kiwanis Club held its 62nd annual pancake breakfast. Per usual, it was very well attended and some 700 tickets were sold. All proceeds help support the club’s goal of awarding $15,000 annually to graduating seniors from Healdsburg High School. None of this would be possible without the generous support from our community.
We would especially like to thank and acknowledge the outstanding generosity of the Norgove family and Bear Republic, who always provide the batter, eggs, sausage and orange juice to prepare all the food. We also want to thank our beneficiaries, Boy Scout Troop 21 and the Healdsburg High Key Clubbers, for helping to greet, serve and clear the tables.
And most of all, we want to thank you, our Healdsburg neighbors, who always attend and support our fundraising activities throughout the years.
On behalf of myself and co-chairs Jan Gianni and Susan Sheehy and all Kiwanis members, we thank you. If you’d like “to change the world, one project and one child at a time,” come and check us out for lunch on Tuesdays or visit www.healdsburgkiwanis.org.
Loretta Strong, Membership Chair
Healdsburg Kiwanis
History project
EDITOR: I am working on an historical timeline of the LGBTQ communities from 1970-1990. We are in desperate need of original photos from those years. Especially needed are images of SCRAP 6 at work on the Brigg’s initiative as well as those of PRIDE parades/activities.
We are also interested in photos that show any buildings, events or activities within the LGBTQ community during those years. If you have photos, please contact Tina Dungan, Le*******@gm***.com.
Come see the timeline display at the Sonoma County Gay PRIDE celebration, which will be in Santa Rosa this year at the new Old Courthouse Square on the weekend of June 1-3.
Tina Dungan
Santa Rosa
She is missed
EDITOR: After a year away, I have moved back to Sonoma County and have been catching up on the local news. Nowhere have I seen the obituary for Virginia Bynum, the widow of Davis Bynum who died just a couple of months ago. I am surprised at the omission in this paper and every other local news source. Virginia was a lovely, charming and intelligent woman who found love with Davis late in life and they were an inspiration and joy to all who knew them. She, as well as Davis, is sorely missed.
Jean Mooney
Cloverdale
Subscribe and invest
EDITOR: My wife and I consider the Tribune to be a great asset in our community and will support it by participating in the direct public offer. In addition, we have seen our kids, when they visit us pick up the Tribune and read it, so we have ordered Tribune subscriptions for them and they enjoy getting their hometown newspaper. I suggest you look into that as well as participate in the direct public offer.
Dave Anderson
Geyserville
Helping each other
EDITOR: The Healdsburg High School track team provided incredible community service to Little Lambs Preschool in exchange for help purchasing new uniforms. With the track team doubling in size this year they found they did not have enough uniforms to outfit everyone.
As part of a fundraising effort they reached out to the community and Little Lambs Preschool, located at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, paired with the team to help one another out.
The team came to the school to clear out the old playground, make room for new equipment and help get the newly remodeled school prepared for its grand reopening open house that is open to the community on Saturday, April 21 from 9 a.m. to noon.
In return, Good Shepherd’s parishioners donated to the team’s uniform fundraising campaign. The team demonstrated their commitment to one another as well as the community through their dedicated service to Little Lambs Preschool.
Mark Airey
Healdsburg
Equal pay
EDITOR: On March 19, the Healdsburg City Council issued a proclamation supporting equal pay for all. Representatives of the Healdsburg chapter of the American Association of University Women responded with this letter:
Thank you, Mayor Mansell and members of the Healdsburg City Council, for joining with cities throughout America in bringing the issue of unequal pay to light.
As people become aware of this discrepancy they often ask, “Don’t we have laws about this?” Yes, we do. The first laws were written over 50 years ago. Since then, however, it is a story of piecemeal attempts to deal with the matter at both the federal and state levels. These laws vary greatly throughout our country, they are not universally implemented and they fail to cover all aspects of this complex situation. Even if the wage gap were to be decreased by half of a percent, the benefit would not be felt by women in the workforce until the time they are ready for retirement.
The group affected most dramatically by pay inequity is women on Social Security. Included are those who joined the workforce after raising a family, those who only began work after becoming widowed or divorced and those who traditionally only found employment in low paying jobs. For them, benefits based on years of employment are low and account for the fact that so many senior citizens are forced to live in extreme poverty.
So, what can we do so women can catch up? Encourage women to negotiate a salary commensurate with the requirements of the position; promote laws that require wage information transparency; encourage local employers to review salary policies; encourage voters to seek out sympathetic politicians.
Locally, celebrate with us on April 10, Fair Pay Day, at Big John’s Market here in Healdsburg, where AAUW will sell special Costeaux cookies designed for the occasion. Women buyers will receive a whole cookie and the men buyers will find there is a slight piece missing to signify the difference, in reverse.
Terry Bloom
Windsor
More hotels = more jobs
EDITOR: As children can’t purchase guns, why should we ask them for their opinion about whether or not someone can open a gun store in Healdsburg? Children weren’t asked about the legal driving age, the legal drinking age, or when might be the correct age to have young men register to serve in the military.
Most parents don’t ask their children whether or not they want vegetables served to them during dinner. My point? We don’t allow our children to make the rules at home and we shouldn’t allow our children to dictate how a nation is run.
Are there enough hotels in Healdsburg? I haven’t a clue, but I’m assuming those building them have conducted their research and are hoping to book rooms once opened. If a bit of competition ensues, wouldn’t that be a plus for our visitors, friends, and family? And what about the jobs the hotels and restaurants are providing? Businesses need employees; the more businesses there are in Healdsburg, the more job opportunities there are.
Think of the bright side, perhaps too many hotels will be built and some will go out of business; the hotels could then be converted into apartments for those of us who grew up in Healdsburg and feel the grass on this side of the hill is still green and don’t mind sharing it with others.
Brent Mortensen
Healdsburg
Medicare for all
EDITOR: California legislators recently introduced a hodgepodge healthcare package they say will provide more residents with insurance coverage through a series of patches and tweaks to our already convoluted and inefficient system. Their proposals build on the ACA, a system that has tragically demonstrated that insurance coverage, with its huge out-of-pocket costs, forces many to skip care even if they are paying for premiums.
Why would we want to expand a system designed to enrich the health insurance industry by restricting and denying care to so many? It’s time for California to lead the nation by adopting the Medicare-for-all type system proposed in the Healthy California Act (SB562), sponsored by the California Nurses Association.
Critics of SB562 say it would cost too much. On the contrary, it would save billions and cover everyone, regardless of their economic or immigration status. It is our current healthcare system that costs too much. We pay far more than other nations and get far less, including poorer health outcomes and a reduced life span. SB562 will save billions of dollars and save lives. We can and must do both.
Joy Metcalfe
Sebastopol
The future
EDITOR: I discovered the best job in Healdsburg. To see the wonder and joy in kids’ faces at the Rotary Easter Egg Hunt is to revel in our future.
The Easter Bunny
Healdsburg
