Category: A Message From The Board - PACG - Progressive Action for the Common Good

Pride calendar on the PACG Calendar - A Message from the Board

5/19/2023

New Pride sub-calendar on the PACG Calendar

A Message from the Board

At our most recent Board meeting we discussed that there are numerous Pride events and activities offered in June in the QCA by many different organizations. Last week's Progressive Action Update (PAU) announced our cosponsorship of the NOH8 Campaign photo shoot, as well as some No Hate In Our States suggestions about Free Films at the Figge for Pride.

As we cull through all of the events to share with you, we decided that it made sense to add a sub calendar to our main PACG Calendar that you can find on our website here.

Events that are Community Pride events have QCP (Quad City Pride) in front of their calendar event title. This should not be confused with one of the sponsors of Pride events, QC Pride. The notation is just a way for our readers to quickly see a Pride offering in our area.

Alta Price, Co-Facilitator
Gender Equity Forum

Walk for River Rights - PACG Event

4/29/2023

Walk for River Rights
Saturday, May 13th at 11:30 am

Schwiebert Riverfront Park
101 17th ST
Rock Island, IL (map)

Great Plains Action Society and Cosponsored by PACG and others

PACG has agreed to cosponsor this event organized by Great Plains Action Society, the only active indigenous-led organization in Iowa. This walk across Centennial Bridge is in solidarity with BIPOC leaders who are working to reclaim Rights of Nature for the Mississippi River.

The event Facebook page link is here and repeated below in italics for those not on Facebook.

On Saturday, May 13th, the Walk for River Rights begins at Schwiebert Park (101 17th St, Rock Island, IL 61201) at 11:30AM and closes at 12:30PM at LeClaire Park (400 Beiderbecke Dr, Davenport, IA 52802).

Join leading BIPOC organizers who have converged in the Quad Cities to begin working towards reclaiming Rights of Nature for the Mississippi River. We will walk across the Centennial Bridge in solidarity as one River community advocating for the Rights of the Mississippi River, from the headwaters to the Gulf, and for the rights of all communities whose lives are supported by the waters. All are welcomed and encouraged to attend! A brief introduction and explanation of our convergence will begin at 11:30AM at Schwiebert Park.

The Walk for River Rights is part of The Mississippi River Summit (May 11th-14th, 2023, Quad Cities, IA-IL), a summit centering and advancing the leadership of 40 organizers of historically racially marginalized communities working to protect water, natural places, and sacred spaces. The goal is to build an Indigenous-led coalition from the Mississippi Headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico, and eventually claim the rights of nature for the entire river system and develop an organized frontline group working to protect the Mississippi watershed and all living beings that rely on it as their home.
Organized by Great Plains Action Society. For questions contact@greatplainsaction.org

*In case the water has not receded by the time of this event, we will adjust our route and end at the Figge plaza

Other sponsors include Sage Sisters of Solidarity, QC Native American Coalition, One Human Family, Nahant Marsh, Partners of Scott County Watersheds, Sierra Club Eagle VIew Group, and Young Lions Roar.

We have included a picture of the route map below. Please join us as we support this important work.

Glenda Guster

Support PACG with Birdies for Charity 2023 - A Message from the Board

4/13/2023

Chip in to support PACG through Birdies for Charity!
through Friday, July 7th *

Chip in for PACG!

Chip in for a chance to win!

Once again, this year PACG is participating in the John Deere Birdies for Charity drive! The John Deere Classic runs from July 5th through 9th this year. Here is some information from the Birdies for Charity website about what this means for us:

When you chip in to help area charities, you could win! But your favorite charity will be the real winner. That’s because participating charities receive 100% of the donations pledged to them in this program, plus a bonus from the Birdies for Charity Bonus Fund which is a guaranteed 5% match.

John Deere Classic week is always exciting. Not just for the tournament, but also for what the tournament means for charities. Since 1971, the John Deere Classic has delivered over $159 million to regional charities, most of it through its innovative Birdies for Charity program. No other event on the PGA TOUR does it better -- and it's the generous and hardworking nature of this area that makes it happen!

Progressive Action Update readers, you can win a two-year lease on a new car by submitting your pledge donation form by June 16th!

And whatever you give to PACG through Birdies for Charity increases your donation by 5% through their generous matching offer.

Click this link or the button (above and below) to donate online to PACG! Our "Bird" is #2363
https://birdiesforcharity.com/donate?charity=2363

OR

Download your Birdies for Charity pledge form here. Fill it out (include PACG and Bird number 2363 at the top) and mail it to:

BIRDIES FOR CHARITY
15623 Coaltown Rd
East Moline, Illinois 61244

Make checks payable to Quad Cities Golf Classic Charitable Foundation.

* Important dates:
Friday, June 16th: Pledges and Guesses for the Grand Prize are due.
Friday, July 7th: Pledges and donations must be received.
July 5th through July 9th: John Deere Classic Tournament Week

Ann McCluskey
Treasurer, PACG

Chip in for PACG!

View the updated version of "I Am the Future" - A Message from the Board

3/2/2023

It's here! View I Am the Future online

A Message from the Board

PACG Board of Directors

We are honored that WQPT offered to update our Black History Month video from 2022! As a small nonprofit organization, PACG could not have done this on our own. Lora Adams, WQPT Director of Marketing and Local Content, worked with her team for two months to make this possible. Please enjoy it here. We hope to get it on our PACG YouTube channel as well.

For those of you who attended our group viewing at the Friends of MLK Center in Davenport on February, 23rd, here is the link to the video recording of We Shall Overcome. Part of this performance by high school students is featured in our video.

(P.S. Have you donated to your local PBS station? Do it here!)

Glenda Guster

2023 Annual Fund Drive Brochure

3/1/2023

Annual Fund Drive Brochure

A Message from the Board

"I Am the Future" gets a makeover! - A Message from the Board

2/14/2023

Announcing I Am the Future gets a WQPT PBS makeover!
Thursday, February 23rd at 7:00 pm

PACG Board of Directors

We are thrilled to let you know that our Black History Month video has been updated thanks to WQPT PBS! Please join us as we watch this together on PBS at the MLK Interpretive Center in Davenport on Thursday, February 23rd at 7:00. The show starts at 7:30 but we ask that you arrive early.

About a year ago when our new PACG president, Glenda Guster, took the helm of the organization, she had the idea of interviewing Quad City residents who had been personally impacted during the 1960s by Rev. Martin Luther King and the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Typical of PACG, we organized a committee to get this project off the ground and the result was a 12-minute video we named I Am the Future: Standing on the Shoulders of the Past. Read about the original project here. And you may view that video on the PACG YouTube Channel: I Am the Future - Standing on the Shoulders of the Past here.

You have read a lot about this project over the past year because Glenda - on her own - has reached out to various groups and libraries to show our video. She gathers all of our featured speakers and hosts a discussion with them, addressing questions from the audience, after each showing. These have been very popular events.

In the fall of 2022, Glenda contacted WQPT PBS in Moline about our video. Lora Adams, WQPT Director of Marketing and Local Content, was extremely interested in seeing all of the raw footage we had and meeting many of our participants. She volunteered to rework our video, adding more than 15 minutes of new material and made some additional changes that we had originally wanted. WQPT did this editing for free!! (Have you donated to PBS this year? Do it now.)

We are honored that PBS was willing to update our video, making it something they will show for Black History Month, 2023. We are really proud that a local news organization saw the value of not just our video but of PACG itself. And none of this would have happened without the hard work of our current president.

Thank you Glenda for your continued devotion to this project!

If you are unable to join us in Davenport, watch on WQPT from home! Record it on your DVR, share with your friends and family, and keep an eye out for further showings. Their outreach will really help spread the word about the common good that PACG continues to do for our community.

Allison Ambrose

PACG welcomes new Board members! - A Message from the President

2/4/2023

Welcome to our new Board of Directors members!

A Message from the President

PACG is excited to announce that we have two new members on our Board of Directors! Please welcome Sharita Lacy and Laronda Bennett! Both women can be contacted from the About section of our website here.

Sharita Lacy

Sharita has worked for the Davenport school system as an Attendance Secretary for three years, and she loves her job! She enjoys her interactions with students as well as the staff. She calls herself an onsite mentor for students. The devoted mother of three children is also busy with their school and other activities. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends. Sharita grew up watching her mother, Glenda Guster, work in the community for the common good. She is looking forward to working with PACG members.

Laronda Bennett

Laronda Bennett is from Kansas City, Missouri and moved to Rock Island in 2017. She joined Tabernacle Baptist Church, where she met her husband, Greg.

Laronda works for Churches United of the Quad City Area in Bettendorf. As the Administrative Assistant, her role in the office is to support the Executive and Associate Director with the daily operation of the office. That could be from answering phones and writing and distributing emails. The job can be rewarding and challenging! She helps everyone who contacts the office for assistance with, food, rent, utilities, and shelter.

The achievement for which Laronda is most proud is deciding to go to school later in life to get her Associate Degree in Logistics Management.

She loves to sew and make cards, finding both very relaxing.

Happy Holidays! - A Message from the Board

12/21/2022

Happy Holidays (and no PAU next week)!

Board of Directors

As 2022 draws to a close, we want to wish our community happy holidays, in what ever way you celebrate. Thank you for everything that you do to help support our progressive mission.

Due to the holiday, there will be no Progressive Action Update (PAU) until Tuesday, January 3rd.
Glenda Guster

Holiday Party 2022 - After Action Report

12/11/2022

2022 PACG Holiday Party - After Action Report

Holiday Party Committee

Over 85 people sat down to a wonderful dinner catered by Maria Lopez of Tamales for Hope on Saturday, December 3rd at the Progressive Action for the Common Good (PACG) Holiday Party at The German American Heritage Center in downtown Davenport. We were delighted to hold this annual event for the first time in two years. And more than 40 guests committed to our initiative to get involved with PACG in 2023!

The PACG Holiday Party is also the platform to announce The Dick Fallow Endowment for Social Justice annual grant award. The Dick Fallow Endowment was established in 2013 to carry on the life work of the former PACG member, activist and union member. local activist and union member. Each year, the endowment issues grants to organizations that fulfill his mission by working in the areas of labor/economic justice, environment/sustainability and/or democracy/human rights.

This year, the $2,500 grant was awarded to the team from Cafe on Vine to support their work in the QC Community. Waunita Sullivan, Executive Director of Cafe on Vine, accepted the award. Cafe on Vine is operated by an independent Board of Directors with members from across the Quad City area and receives daily support and help from volunteers from throughout the community. Cafe on Vine will use this endowment to continue to provide free, nutritious meals to the needy of the community 365 days each year. They serve two meals per day, Monday through Friday (breakfast and lunch), a luncheon service on Saturdays, and an evening meal on Sundays. It is the only meal site in the Quad Cities to do so.

Forum leaders also spoke about each of our current 4 forums: Civil Rights, Environmental, Gender Equity, and Health Care Reform and their community organizing work and accomplishments during the past year.

The PACG Holiday Committee thanks you for coming and for celebrating another busy year:
Allison Ambrose, Alta Price, Ann McCluskey, Caryn Unsicker, Ed Broders, Glenda Guster, Susan Leuthauser, and Maggie Davis.

If you have not done so already please sign up here for the PACG Progressive Action Update, our weekly email, to keep on top of our activities for 2023.

Happy Holidays and thank you all for fighting for social justice throughout our community.

PACG is on Instagram - A Message from the Board

11/29/2022

PACG is on Instagram!

PACG Board of Directors

After a lot of discussion with the Board and our Communications Committee, our Office Manager, Maggie Davis, has brought us into the world of Instagram! We hope that this will be an effective way for us to engage with our community.

Find us @PACGQC. And remember to share things with us that you would like to have us post on our Instagram. We are certainly interested in any feedback you may have for us on this new venture.

Glenda Guster