Changes in the Air

You can tell by the recent lack of new posts that the Workers Center has been caught in a windstorm of activity lately. Not only have we spent the weekend at a work ‘retreat’ (the quotation marks denote my own opinion that the word ‘retreat’ hints at spa treatments and naps while actually a work ‘retreat’ means — well, more work), but we’ve been busy with hotline cases, May Day rallies, Make Wall Street Pay rallies and the tying up of assorted projects.

So here we are today with a bittersweet good bye to our Cornell Work Study student, Jessica Yoon. Jessica has worked on so many projects at the Center, always cheerfully adding something essential to discussions and programs. She was one of our representatives when the Immigrant Rights Coalition was formed and has been a leader in one of our new endeavors, the Listening Project.

Jessica is graduating from Cornell and heading to New Orleans where she’ll be teaching high school math. We’ll miss her.

Best of luck, Jessica, and thank you for all you’ve done.

This summer our Ithaca College Work Study student Samantha Wolfe will be working full time for the Workers Center. Samantha is also an essential part of the Workers Center, offering great enthusiasm for social justice.

Samantha is another leader of the Listening Project and has stepped forward to work with TCWC volunteers this summer.

Here’s a photo of Samantha with Neil. Neil is a tremendous asset to the Workers Center and, in fact, all of Ithaca, because of his whole-hearted acceptance of and advocacy for people.

You can’t really understand the Workers Center without getting to know what people like Jessica, Samantha and Neil do for us.