by Tom & Carol Braford
What do That Uppity Theater Company and Arizmendi Ecovillage have in common? We are both committed to making a difference with the people who are still reeling from the impact of Covid. That is why we recently joined forces to submit a pair of Local Tourism grant applications.
It is common knowledge that the tourism and hospitality industry creates a lot of service sector and arts related jobs. That is why organizations like the St Patrick Center have focused on training and employment in that sector.
It is more than an old cliché that you can always find a job as a dishwasher. When I had had enough of being a probation and parole officer fifty years ago, I knew from my clients’ experience that I could trade being behind a desk to being behind a sink in just one day, and the pay wasn’t all that different.
My new employer, The Sunshine Inn, wanted to find out what else I could do. Being a waiter didn’t work out, but I became a passable vegetarian chef. That is often the case with entry level jobs and is part of the strategy behind the St Patrick Center.
In short order, we served up a $7M application that, if accepted, will turn the Ecovillage into not just an EcoTourism and just transition destination, complete with accessible Green Electron Co-op owned transportation and freight, but also a major source of jobs for housing insecure families and starving artists. With hospitality venues like the big endangered wading Birds’ B&B, a couple of dinner theaters that will serve exquisite offerings with awesome vegetarian creations along with theatrical food for thought and action, as only Joan Lipkin can serve up.
They will perform periodically at our new theater coming as early as next spring at the soon to be fully renovated ArtCraft Venetian Blind Manufacturing building at 397O Olive St.
Please call or write your city, state and national leaders to urge them to get behind this initiative and support similar ones in any way they can. Let’s Dance the Vote!
Contact: braford@sbcglobal.net