Category: PACG Event

April Green Drinks - Davenport students provide clean water for Kenya

3/21/2023

April Green Drinks - Davenport Students Provide Clean Water to Thousands in Kenya
Tuesday, April 4th at 5:00 pm

El Patron Mexican Restaurant
1806 2nd AV
Rock Island, IL (map)

Environmental Forum

Davenport's West High School's project to bring clean water to people in Kenya started in 2017. Teacher Greg Smith and student Duro Johnson will share their challenges and learning experiences from their involvement in this water-filtration project with us in April's Green Drinks presentation. Read more about it on our PACG blog post here. There is also a registration link so that we can give the restaurant an idea of the number of attendees.

Susan Leuthauser

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April Green Drinks - Davenport students provide clean water in Kenya

3/19/2023

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April Green Drinks - Davenport Students Provide Clean Water to Thousands in Kenya
Tuesday, April 4th at 5:00 pm (in person)

El Patron Mexican Restaurant
1806, 2nd Avenue
Rock Island, IL (map)

Environmental Forum

Since 2017, Davenport's West High School students have been working with Fishers of Men Ministries to develop a water filtration system to provide clean water for families in Kenya. In 2020, teacher Greg Smith and a student made an initial trip there to collect data on the water.

COVID delayed the project by two years, but by 2021a fully functioning slow-sand water filtration system was developed. Duro Johnson, a senior at West High and native of Nigeria, designed a concrete building to house this water filtration system in Kenya. In January, four students led by teacher Greg Smith travelled to the village of Muamba in eastern Kenya to implement this slow-sand water filter system, which is now providing clean water for over 22,000 people.

Through the years, over 100 students participated in this project. Greg Smith and Duro Johnson will share their challenges, learning, and experiences from this project with us at this month's Green Drinks.

To make sure that we have enough space for our meeting, please R.S.V.P. at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcoduGpqTIsH9fD6ssFCjEteY09ZHZ41w6m

Susan Leuthauser

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Immigration and Refugee Summit - After Action Report

2/28/2023

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Immigration and Refugee Summit After Action Report

Civil Rights Forum
One Human Family-QCA and Quad Cities Interfaith, co-sponsors

The PACG Civil Rights Forum worked with our friends at One Human Family and Quad Cities Interfaith to present an educational summit dealing with the problems that both immigrants and refugees face today. "Navigating Complex Policies Within a Broken System" was well-attended.

We held our event at Eastern Iowa Community College in Davenport on Saturday, February 25th and were able to use the school's media equipment to allow one presenter to attend via Zoom.

We were excited to bring together a panel of people who could share the diverse experiences they have working with immigrant and refugee populations. Read about our six panelists here. Their unique backgrounds and experiences made the gathering even more powerful. They shared heartfelt experiences from their own lives and from the work they do to help immigrants and refugees in order to educate the attendees on the various obstacles and challenges faced by these people. After the panelists spoke, the audience engaged in meaningful discussion on ways we can work to make a difference overcoming these challenges and obstacles.

The panelists were well received and the audience was very energized. The Civil Rights forum will be following up on various ideas shared about action we can take.

WQAD sent a reporter to our event and you can view their news story here.

You may view a recording of our summit here.

Allison Ambrose

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March Green Drinks - Climate Stories -PACG Event

2/19/2023

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March Green Drinks - Climate Stories: From Diversity to Bridges
Tuesday, March 7th at 5:00 pm

El Patron Mexican Restaurant
1806, 2nd Avenue
Rock Island, IL (map)

Environmental Forum

Most Americans recognize humanity's role in climate change; however, an increasingly vast and conflicting array of stories are being told about specific causes, consequences, and interventions. Some are demonstrably misleading, aiming primarily to extend the status quo, while more accurate examples tend to be less widely considered.

Dr. Hamner, Professor of English and the Liberal Arts and Sciences coordinator at the Western Illinois University, will offer a quickly moving, upper-atmosphere tour of both commonplace and under-appreciated climate tales in popular media, literature, and cinema. Asking especially about the central problems and solutions that they imagine, he will contend that the stories we hear, digest, and amplify about our unfolding long emergency are crucial to the actions we undertake. These narratives can be the propaganda of would-be oligarchs, but they can also become bridges toward
tangible solutions.

To make sure that we have enough space for our meeting, we like to give El Patron a
head count prior to the meeting. Please RSVP here.

Susan Leuthauser

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Hands Off! Happy Hour is back! PACG Event

2/11/2023

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Join us for Hands Off! Happy Hour
Tuesday, February 21st at 5:00 pm

Tony's Chicago Style Pizzeria
1321 5th AV
Moline, IL (map)

Gender Equity Forum

We have decided to do something similar to what our friends in the PACG Environmental Forum have been successfully sponsoring for many years. They offer a monthly educational meeting called Green Drinks.

Hands Off! Happy Hour will meet in-person monthly to discuss how we can more effectively coordinate our action groups to create educational actions and events that meet our purpose. We hope to alternate venues on either side of the river.

Please join us on February 21st at 5:00 pm for noshing and strategizing.

Alta Price

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PACG Immigration and Refugee Summit - PACG Event

2/4/2023

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Immigration and Refugee Summit - Navigating Complex Policies within a Broken System
Saturday, February 25th from 10:00 am to noon

Eastern Iowa Community College
Rooms W 116/117
101 West 3rd Street
Davenport, IA (map)

PACG Civil Rights Forum and co-sponsored by One Human Family and Quad Cities Interfaith

Join PACG and our co-sponsors One Human Family-QCA and Quad Cities Interfaith as we present "Navigating Complex Policies within a Broken System" on Saturday, February 25th from 10:00 am to noon at Eastern Iowa Community College in Davenport, IA.

The purpose of the summit is to inform participants of the various laws and regulations that affect immigrants and refugees, including visa processing, granting asylum, entrance quotas, available resources, and protections. Updates on current legislation as well as challenges with implementation will be discussed.

Spanish translation will be provided.

Our panelists (below) will inform the audience from their unique perspectives and experiences. They will participate in a Q&A session to discuss specific problems with the current laws in order to identify potential solutions that can be acted upon.

Summer Allchin has been a solo practitioner with Allchin Law Office, PLLC in Muscatine, Iowa since 2012. Summer practices exclusively in immigration law, focusing primarily on family-based immigration, consular processing, waivers, citizenship applications, and domestic abuse issues, such as Violence Against Women (VAWA) and U visas (nonimmigrant victims of abuse that occurred within the US) cases. Prior to opening her own law firm, Summer was an Associate Attorney with a small immigration law firm in St. Paul, Minnesota. She also worked as a family and immigration staff attorney with Mid-Minnesota Legal Services in St. Cloud, Minnesota. Summer received her law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law in 2007, where she was very active in the immigration clinic and received the “Michelle R. Bennet Award for Outstanding Client Services.” She received her B.A. in International Relations and Nordic Area Studies from Augsburg College in 2002. Summer is admitted to practice law in Iowa and Minnesota. She is an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and regularly volunteers with the Iowa Migrant Movement for Justice immigration clinic in Columbus Junction, Iowa. Ms. Alchin will talk about her work and the obstacles her clients face.

Karina Garnica and Gricelda Garnica are Immigration Counselors at the Catholic Diocese of Davenport. They have more than 20 years of experience in legal family reunification and also help DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipients. They will discuss their work and obstacles that affect the communities they serve.

Mayra Hernandez was born in Mexico and came to live in the United States when she was four years old. She is a DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) recipient. Mayra is a first-generation college student and received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of Iowa. Currently, she is a Community Organizer with Quad Cities Interfaith and her main goal is to identify and develop leaders in the QCA to use their voices and their stories to be powerful. She will talk about her own personal experiences, policies that affect DACA, and what needs to happen in the future.

Ratko Rastovic is the Program Director for World Relief Quad Cities. He arrived in Davenport as a refugee from the former Yugoslavia in 1999 and has been employed by World Relief Quad Cities since 2000, presently as Program Director. He is a partially Accredited Representative for the Department of Justice, which allows him to represent individuals before the Department of Homeland Security.

Fred Tsao is the Senior Policy Counsel at the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). In this position, he provides technical support, trainings, and presentations on immigration-related topics to service providers, immigrant community organizations, and others who work with immigrants. He also provides updates and analysis of changes in immigration policies and procedures to ICIRR members and allies, and assists with the coalition's legislative advocacy efforts. A self-described “recovering attorney,” Fred practiced law at the Rockford office of Prairie State Legal Services, where he worked after receiving his law degree from the University of Michigan. He has also worked with the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, the Chicago Anti-Hunger Federation, and the Missouri Public Interest. Mr. Tsao will speak in depth about what the ICIRR does and some of the current issues that affect immigrant and refugee rights.

We are really excited to bring this group of panelists who have diverse experiences with immigrant and refugee populations to educate the public on the various obstacles and challenges faced by these populations. Our hope is that with a better understanding of what these populations face, we can work to make a difference.

Allison Ambrose

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"I Am the Future" showing by DYC of NAACP - What You Can Do Now

2/3/2023

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I Am the Future: Standing on the Shoulders of the Past showing - Update
Saturday, February 18th at 3:00 pm

Davenport Public Library
321 N Main ST
Davenport, IA 52801 (map)

Note: The venue has changed. This event will be at the main branch of the Davenport Library on North Main Street.

PACG and the NAACP Davenport Youth Council 47AA

Our Black History Month project is once again being shown at a Quad Cities library. We are very excited that the NAACP Davenport Youth Council will make this presentation.

Please join us for a viewing of the impact that the 1963 March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr had on local Quad City residents.

As before, we will have at least some of the interviewees on hand for a discussion afterwards. Read more about these remarkable people from our previous blog post.

Glenda Guster

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January Green Drinks - NAACP Climate Justice Committee

1/1/2023

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Green Drinks - NAACP Environmental Climate Justice Committee
Tuesday, January 10th at 5:00 pm (in-person)

El Patron Mexican Restaurant
1806 2nd AV
Rock Island, IL (map)

Environmental Forum

Our speaker this month, Glenda Guster, is the PACG President and has led the NAACP Environmental Climate Justice Committee since January of 2021. The group educated and benefited the underserved community. For two years, they have given out potted tomato plants. In October of this year, Glenda and her husband, Mike, drove a truck full of donated bottled water to Jackson, Mississippi for those who were still without clean water due to the severe storms. Glenda will share the committee's past accomplishments and plans for this coming year.

This will be our first in-person Green Drinks meeting since COVID. We have an exciting year planned. Come and get re-acquainted with like-minded folks.

Although this is an in-person meeting, we ask that you use our Zoom account to RSVP so that we may give the restaurant an attendee count. Please click this link to RSVP and select the meeting on January 10th:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcoduGpqTIsH9fD6ssFCjEteY09ZHZ41w6m

Susan Leuthauser

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December Green Drinks - PFAS in Iowa

11/18/2022

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December Green Drinks - PFAS in Iowa: The prevalence of “Forever Chemicals” in Iowa's Aquifers, Surface Waters, and Drinking Water
Tuesday, December 6th at 5:00 pm via Zoom

Environmental Forum

Speaker: Matthew Graesch, Environmental Specialist, Iowa Department of Natural Resources

The “forever chemicals”, or PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), are a class of potentially toxic and highly persistent chemicals widely used in commercial products and industrial processes. For the past 3 years, Matthew has been working to better understand the extend of PFAS contamination in Iowa. He designed and implemented a surveillance program to test our drinking water supplies. More than 600 water samples from the aquifers and surface waters were analyzed for 25 different PFAS compounds. By the time this study concludes next spring, drinking water of over 75% of Iowans will have been tested for PFAS compounds.

Matthew will discuss with us where PFAS originate, why they are problematic, and how they are regulated. He will also review the results from the surveillance program, how PFAS chemicals affect our water sources and how to identify effective treatment to remove them from our drinking water.

R.S.V.P. at: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcoduGpqTIsH9fD6ssFCjEteY09ZHZ41w6m

Susan Leuthauser

P.S. After our Zoom meeting, Matthew was willing to share his PowerPoint presentation with us in pdf format. Download it below.

Additional information from this meeting can be found at these links:
For more information on Iowa PFASs, go to:https://www.iowadnr.gov/Environmental-Protection/PFAS

For PFAS sampling results in Iowa, go to: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/b04e0e828a974e6e8962e47895ebb520

scott_county_pfas_dnrpresentation_120622.pdf
File Size:	3800 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

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Annual Holiday Party 2022 - Saturday, December 3rd

11/2/2022

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Join us for our Annual Holiday Party!
Saturday, December 3rd from 5:30 to 8:00 pm

German American Heritage Center
712 W 2nd Street
Davenport, Iowa 52802 (map)

A Message from the Board

Join us at the German American Heritage Center for a meal and help us celebrate another year of PACG's activism!

Although this event is free, we need you to register here.

The main course will be catered. Please bring a side dish or dessert to share.

We also ask that, if possible, you bring your own dishware, silverware and reusable napkin. This follows our PACG environmental principle of sustainability.

We will present the annual Dick Fallow Social Justice Grant Award to a worthy, local recipient.

Optional Holiday Gift: Every year we also ask for gently used books for the library for Cobblestone residents, either adult or children's books. They do not need to be wrapped.

If you’re one of our many new members this year, come find out how much fun we progressives have in the holiday season!

Contact our Office Manager with any questions.

PACG Holiday Party Committee

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April Green Drinks - Davenport students provide clean water for Kenya

April Green Drinks - Davenport Students Provide Clean Water to Thousands in Kenya
Tuesday, April 4th at 5:00 pm

April Green Drinks - Davenport students provide clean water in Kenya

April Green Drinks - Davenport Students Provide Clean Water to Thousands in Kenya
Tuesday, April 4th at 5:00 pm (in person)

Immigration and Refugee Summit - After Action Report

Immigration and Refugee Summit After Action Report

March Green Drinks - Climate Stories -PACG Event

March Green Drinks - Climate Stories: From Diversity to Bridges
Tuesday, March 7th at 5:00 pm

Hands Off! Happy Hour is back! PACG Event

Join us for Hands Off! Happy Hour
Tuesday, February 21st at 5:00 pm

PACG Immigration and Refugee Summit - PACG Event

Immigration and Refugee Summit - Navigating Complex Policies within a Broken System
Saturday, February 25th from 10:00 am to noon

"I Am the Future" showing by DYC of NAACP - What You Can Do Now

I Am the Future: Standing on the Shoulders of the Past showing - Update
Saturday, February 18th at 3:00 pm

January Green Drinks - NAACP Climate Justice Committee

Green Drinks - NAACP Environmental Climate Justice Committee
Tuesday, January 10th at 5:00 pm (in-person)

December Green Drinks - PFAS in Iowa

December Green Drinks - PFAS in Iowa: The prevalence of “Forever Chemicals” in Iowa's Aquifers, Surface Waters, and Drinking Water
Tuesday, December 6th at 5:00 pm via Zoom

Annual Holiday Party 2022 - Saturday, December 3rd

Join us for our Annual Holiday Party!
Saturday, December 3rd from 5:30 to 8:00 pm

Archives

Categories

April Green Drinks - Davenport Students Provide Clean Water to Thousands in KenyaTuesday, April 4th at 5:00 pm

April Green Drinks - Davenport Students Provide Clean Water to Thousands in Kenya​Tuesday, April 4th at 5:00 pm (in person)

Immigration and Refugee Summit After Action Report

March Green Drinks - Climate Stories: From Diversity to BridgesTuesday, March 7th at 5:00 pm

Join us for Hands Off! Happy HourTuesday, February 21st at 5:00 pm

Immigration and Refugee Summit - Navigating Complex Policies within a Broken SystemSaturday, February 25th from 10:00 am to noon

I Am the Future: Standing on the Shoulders of the Past showing - UpdateSaturday, February 18th at 3:00 pm

Green Drinks - NAACP Environmental Climate Justice CommitteeTuesday, January 10th at 5:00 pm (in-person)

December Green Drinks - PFAS in Iowa: The prevalence of “Forever Chemicals” in Iowa's Aquifers, Surface Waters, and Drinking Water Tuesday, December 6th at 5:00 pm via Zoom

Join us for our Annual Holiday Party!​Saturday, December 3rd from 5:30 to 8:00 pm

Archives

Categories

April Green Drinks - Davenport Students Provide Clean Water to Thousands in Kenya
Tuesday, April 4th at 5:00 pm

April Green Drinks - Davenport Students Provide Clean Water to Thousands in Kenya
Tuesday, April 4th at 5:00 pm (in person)

March Green Drinks - Climate Stories: From Diversity to Bridges
Tuesday, March 7th at 5:00 pm

Join us for Hands Off! Happy Hour
Tuesday, February 21st at 5:00 pm

Immigration and Refugee Summit - Navigating Complex Policies within a Broken System
Saturday, February 25th from 10:00 am to noon

I Am the Future: Standing on the Shoulders of the Past showing - Update
Saturday, February 18th at 3:00 pm

Green Drinks - NAACP Environmental Climate Justice Committee
Tuesday, January 10th at 5:00 pm (in-person)

December Green Drinks - PFAS in Iowa: The prevalence of “Forever Chemicals” in Iowa's Aquifers, Surface Waters, and Drinking Water
Tuesday, December 6th at 5:00 pm via Zoom

Join us for our Annual Holiday Party!
Saturday, December 3rd from 5:30 to 8:00 pm