Techmama's HP Magic Giveaway - My nomination, Akemi and PACT

Beth at Tech Mamas has a great giveaway - an fatty HP prize package.   It is awesome!  You should nominate someone.  Iam nominating Akemi Flynn and PACT one of my favorite organizations.  Check it out.  If we get picked as one of the top 20, then I'll need your votes to win over $6000 in prizes which will be quickly donated to PACT.   Even if we don't get that far - PACT is an organization you NEED to know about.  Watch this video.  It will inspire you - I promise.

NOTE: I didn't win, but I am going to enter the same HP giveaway contest over at the Living in Theory Blog.  So cruise over there and check out another great blog.  You should enter too!  Hero Daddy and Shellie won and certainly deserved it. Congrats and wish me luck.

PICK PACT AND AKEMI for the TechMama's (and Living in Theory's) HP Magic Giveway!
Community Organizers got a bad wrap this past election cycle.  But we all know that organizers are the ones who work for little pay and behind the scenes to make big things happen.  In Silicon Valley - the land of plenty, there are many that live in the shadow of the venture capitalists, Steve Jobs types and internet gurus.  They are the ones who clear dishes at restaurants, provide janitorial services, stock our grocery store shelves and teach our children.

I am nominating my friend Akemi Flynn for this honor because she is a community organizer - both formally and informally.  The organization she works for is People Acting In Community Together (PACT).  Yesterday, I had the honor of attending a fundraiser and was moved to tears by this video.  Akemi and PACT work to ensure that everyday people lead the change they need, like health care and safe after-school programs.  Her organization is on the front lines of fighting for quality education for students in East San Jose.  They recently led the ONLY local summit to help our elected officials see how home foreclosures are affecting people in Silicon Valley.  They give regular folks the tools to advocate for themselves - to take power and to have the confidence to make change.  Akemi, PACT and the leaders they organize are a vision to behold.  I promise you would be blown away!

How would they use the HP Magic package?  Personally, I would keep the HP Mini, but donate the rest of the package to Akemi and PACT.  They have a plan to create a team of community bloggers, who will write the stories of Silicon Valley's neediest.  They will train grandparents, monolingual spanish speakers and youth to gather the stories and move people to action.  Again - real people telling their stories and engaging others to be part of their movement .  These tools are vital in helping them kick start this effort.

On another note, Akemi teaches sunday school at the Mountain View Buddhist Temple.  She is also a First 5 commissioner, where she volunteers tirelessly to make sure that all kids in Silicon Valley under the age of 5 have access to the resources they need to grow up healthy.  Most importantly, she is a mother who tries to keep it together. She is not perfect. She forgets to eat lunch, she picks up take out for dinner and sometimes doesn't put her laptop away when she should.  But we (her family and friends) love her.  Our community is lucky to have her working behind the scenes.  She is a true hero  and she works with hundreds of other folks to see that they are heroes too. 

Comments

[Beth Blecherman (a.k.a. TechMama)]

Thanks for this post!!! What a great organization.

[Laurie/Mobile Mommy]

PACT sounds like a really interesting organization - I wish your friend much success in it. And Akemi is lucky to have a friend like you! Good luck and take care.

[Zoey]

Your friend Akemi Flynn sound like a dedicated individual - Best of Luck to both of you!

[jyl_mommygossip]

You sound very tapped in to the needs of your community. I love that you are friends with the person you are nominating and have a passion for PACT.

Good luck with the contest. Aren't there so many terrific entries? WOW!

Happy Holidays!

[jyl_mommygossip]

You sound very tapped in to the needs of your community. I love that you are friends with the person you are nominating and have a passion for PACT.

Good luck with the contest. Aren't there so many terrific entries? WOW!

Happy Holidays!

[Gwynne]

People just don't realize that without community organizers, so many people would fall through the cracks. Great work! Blessings and good luck to you!

[Jolly Joan]

Thanks for giving the big stuff away. There are wonderful community organizers out there who should get anything BUT a bad rap. Thanks for standing up for them!

[Rodrigo Brandao]

I totally agree with you! We have to value local leadership and the guys on top have to start listening to the people actually running and caring for each individual community. PAC seems like a great organization and I'll read more about it.

Congrats!

[Used/Refurbished Laptops]

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I really enjoy your NAC podcasts and asked Alan about a month ago to add Paul Congdon to your guest line up. Glad to see him as a guest on your show. Paul from NYC - ProCurve Networking by HP

[used computers]

They give regular folks the tools to advocate for themselves to take power and to have the confidence to make change.