I am sure many of you saw the article written about Jefferson Park Forward.
I would like to lay out a couple of things on the article.
First, Jefferson Park Forward is not one person, it’s all of us. The 60+ people who showed up at the first meeting last month, the 306 (and counting) members on our Facebook page, the 70+ email subscribers on our website, the members who showed up at Holiday Sparkle, making it agreat event, and the neighbors who will stick with us, build this organization from the ground up through volunteerism on committees, charities and events we work in the future.
Second, I want to specifically point out that JPF, despite the article’s suggestion, is really made up of people across the age spectrum, tenure in Jefferson Park, income, and housing. We’re a diverse bunch with newcomers and people who have been around awhile. We’re all working together in the revitalization of our community and we can all rely on each other’s wealth of advice and knowledge.
I don’t want to take all of the credit for this and want in particular to call out our directors for all of their help in working over these last few months to take JPF from a JPNA campaign platform, to a bundle of ideas tossed around to a concrete foundation in which we can build an organization off of. Our directors have dedicated a lot of time into this effort and we’ll be needing ever more help from our neighbors and members in the near future. Thank you Dennis Davis, Marilyn Zavoskey-Davis, HM Osterhout,Jenny Anast Conlon, Kate Dash, Rolando Rodriguez, Robb Van Hook,Marie MacDonald, and Susan Ciastko. Any one of them could have been quoted here and have worked tirelessly to get this thing moving.
To carry our momentum forward a bit, we have identified a date for the next meeting. Mark you calendars for Tuesday, January 19, 7 pm. Agenda and location to follow soon.
Thanks to all of you for your support of JPF and we can’t wait to begin the process of moving Jefferson Park…forward.
-Ryan Richter