20th Anniversary Gala! After Action Report
Sunday, October 19th
Close to 150 people joined us at the Rock Island Holiday Inn to celebrate PACG's 20th Anniversary Sunday evening. Everyone had a wonderful time and enjoyed a good meal together. We offered special thanks to founding members and others who have been involved over the years, as well as to newcomers and everyone else who joined us.
Regrettably, cofounder Cathy Bolkcom was unable to join us. Cofounder Alta Price gave an interesting account of how she and Cathy came together in 2005 at a school board meeting that resulted in the banning of The Misfits, a middle school book with a tertiary gay character. From there, Alta and Cath went on to encourage others to band together and take action to promote the common good of all. Progressive Action for the Common Good arose from those initial meetings.
Caroline Vernon updated our former historical slideshow to include our more recent events. Her slides played during Social Hour which is when we were serenaded by our favorite musician, Chris Dunn.
Allison Ambrose led our PACG Trivia game. Guests competed as tables to answer questions about PACG’s history. The questions ranged in difficulty, and everyone had fun. The winning table received Whitey’s gift certificates.
Ed Tibbets, who claims that public speaking is not his forte, nevertheless gave a memorable and very relevant speech about the importance of continuing to uphold our right to free speech and other freedoms against the onslaught of increasing attacks against them.
Unfortunately, we were not able to show our film, I Am the Future: Standing on the Shoulders of the Past, due to technical issues. Our past president, Glenda Guster, spearheaded this project documenting local citizens who were involved in the civil rights movement. We're very grateful for the work and generosity of Lora Adams at WQPT, who upgraded it to a more professional format. We encourage you to watch the film.
We would like to thank Shanda Burrage for the beautiful table decorations. Caroline also painted the little rocks that were on every table. We appreciate the work that Taylor and Dakota Vernon did taking photos throughout our event. We hope to have images available to share with you soon.
We have written a blog post called 20th Anniversary Gala Documents which you can see here. You can view our Social Hour and Program presentations, our speakers’ remarks, our program booklet, pictures (which we will continue to add), and much more at the link.
Thank you to those who have been part of or supported PACG over the past 20 years. We look forward to continuing working for the common good of all!
Caryn Unsicker (she,her)
Regrettably, cofounder Cathy Bolkcom was unable to join us. Cofounder Alta Price gave an interesting account of how she and Cathy came together in 2005 at a school board meeting that resulted in the banning of The Misfits, a middle school book with a tertiary gay character. From there, Alta and Cath went on to encourage others to band together and take action to promote the common good of all. Progressive Action for the Common Good arose from those initial meetings.
Caroline Vernon updated our former historical slideshow to include our more recent events. Her slides played during Social Hour which is when we were serenaded by our favorite musician, Chris Dunn.
Allison Ambrose led our PACG Trivia game. Guests competed as tables to answer questions about PACG’s history. The questions ranged in difficulty, and everyone had fun. The winning table received Whitey’s gift certificates.
Ed Tibbets, who claims that public speaking is not his forte, nevertheless gave a memorable and very relevant speech about the importance of continuing to uphold our right to free speech and other freedoms against the onslaught of increasing attacks against them.
Unfortunately, we were not able to show our film, I Am the Future: Standing on the Shoulders of the Past, due to technical issues. Our past president, Glenda Guster, spearheaded this project documenting local citizens who were involved in the civil rights movement. We're very grateful for the work and generosity of Lora Adams at WQPT, who upgraded it to a more professional format. We encourage you to watch the film.
We would like to thank Shanda Burrage for the beautiful table decorations. Caroline also painted the little rocks that were on every table. We appreciate the work that Taylor and Dakota Vernon did taking photos throughout our event. We hope to have images available to share with you soon.
We have written a blog post called 20th Anniversary Gala Documents which you can see here. You can view our Social Hour and Program presentations, our speakers’ remarks, our program booklet, pictures (which we will continue to add), and much more at the link.
Thank you to those who have been part of or supported PACG over the past 20 years. We look forward to continuing working for the common good of all!
Caryn Unsicker (she,her)
RSS Feed
