Which brings us to one particular Webb volunteer named Annabel Park. For those of you who don't know her, Annabel is a young woman who flew out from California in early September 2006 to help out the Webb campaign "for a few weeks." Well, next thing you know, Annabel had become a volunteer superstar and had scrapped her plans to return to LA. Instead, Annabel was a whirlind of activity, energy, and good cheer as she went about doing everything she could (making movies, organizing the Korean American community in NOVA, etc.) to elect Jim Webb to the U.S. Senate.
Now that the campaign has ended, Annabel has committed herself to continuing the great work she did in September, October and November 2006, particularly with Virginia's Asian American community. Along those lines, Annabel and friends have established the "Korean American Community Corps" (Koamco) as a "non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to provide assistance and services to members of the Korean American community of northern Virginia through a corp of volunteers." On Monday, January 22 at 6:30 PM in Annandale, the Koamco will hold its first bilingual town hall. In addition, Koamco is setting up a bilingual community assistance hotline and launching a volunteer corp recruitment campaign.
For more on all this, see Koamco's press release after the "flip." And definitely, consider attending their townhall meeting on Monday, the title of which is "Is North Korea a military threat?" Definitely a timely and important for this group's kickoff. Congratulations to Annabel for her hard work on this!
Korean American Community Corps
Community Service Leads to Community Strength.
www.koamco.orgFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA ADVISORY: PRESS CONFERENCE
Korean American Organization to Launch Bi-lingual Town Hall, Community Hotline and Volunteer Corps Recruitment
When: MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2007, 6:30 PM
Where: Main Meeting Room, George Mason Regional Library, 7001 Little River Turnpike Annandale, VA 22003
Korean American Community Corps will launch its Community Assistance Hotline, Annandale Town Hall Series and Volunteer Corp Recruitment Campaign.
Korean American Community Corp is a new non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to provide assistance and services to members of the Korean American community of northern Virginia through a corp of volunteers. We will also provide information through public workshops and monthly town hall meeting and encourage people to participate in the democratic process through ongoing voter registration and voter education programs. All our programs are free to the public.
Town Hall on Jan. 22nd: Is North Korea a military threat?
The first town hall in Korean and English will be on the subject of North Korea with John Feffer. John Feffer is the co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus and author of North Korea, South Korea: U.S. Policy at a Time of Crisis. He will lead a discussion about why North Korea is a critical issue facing the world today and how U.S. citizens can get involved. The town hall will be sponsored by Korean-language Radio AM 1310 and Foreign Policy In Focus.Bi-lingual Community Assistance Hotline
Korean-speaking volunteer will provide assistance to people who need translations and answer questions about Medicare, social security, and serve as a clearinghouse for services provided by existing community-based organizations. In the coming months, as our volunteer corp grows, we will add more services such as free transportation/translation for medical appointments for the elderly.Volunteer Corp Recruitment Campaign
We are launching a campaign to recruit a corp of volunteers to provide community service. We call on members of the community to give two hours a week or eight hours a month for community service.Contact:
Peter Kim (in Korean)
peter@koamco.org
703-850-8440Annabel Park (in English)
annabel@koamco.org
310-801-2755Korean American Community Corps
www.koamco.org
Former Sen. George Allen's "Macaca" comments, Rep. Virgil Goode's Muslim hate mongering, and now Del. Frank D. Hargrove attacking African Americans and Jews -- it is not a coincidence that the three most offensive racial comments in recent American history have all been made by Virginia politicians. Virginia exists on a cultural fault line, where minority populations are increasing to the degree that it is putting added pressure on those who are resistant to change.
In the recent Virginia Senate election, Asian Pacific Americans voted 3 to 1 for Jim Webb over George Allen, and voted in higher numbers than they ever had before in a Virginia Election.
Our state and our country needs to see greater participation for all marginalized communities. This will not only combat racism and other forms of bigotry, it will help us defeat those politicans who use such prejudice as a weapon (or aren't able to "watch what they say" enough to hide it). I think we can all agree -- the ones who are guilty of this are up to no good, pretty much across the board, when it comes to the rest of their legislative agenda.
With the political climate as it is today in Virginia, the 3 to 1 ratio I mentioned above is likely to extend to new voters from minority communities -- and new voters who dislike the use of racism as a political platform. It's in our state's and our nation's best interest to reach out to communities who have thus far felt excluded from the political process. So please support this new Korean American Community Corps. I'll be at the Jan. 22nd town hall meeting doing just that.
Former Sen. George Allen's "Macaca" comments, Rep. Virgil Goode's Muslim hate mongering, and now Del. Frank D. Hargrove attacking African Americans and Jews -- it is not a coincidence that the three most offensive racial comments in recent American history have all been made by Virginia politicians. Virginia exists on a cultural fault line, where minority populations are increasing to the degree that it is putting added pressure on those who are resistant to change.
In the recent Virginia Senate election, Asian Pacific Americans voted 3 to 1 for Jim Webb over George Allen, and voted in higher numbers than they ever had before in a Virginia Election.
Our state and our country needs to see greater participation for all marginalized communities. This will not only combat racism and other forms of bigotry, it will help us defeat those politicans who use such prejudice as a weapon (or aren't able to "watch what they say" enough to hide it). I think we can all agree -- the ones who are guilty of this are up to no good, pretty much across the board, when it comes to the rest of their legislative agenda.
With the political climate as it is today in Virginia, the 3 to 1 ratio I mentioned above is likely to extend to new voters from minority communities -- and new voters who dislike the use of racism as a political platform. It's in our state's and our nation's best interest to reach out to communities who have thus far felt excluded from the political process. So please support this new Korean American Community Corps. I'll be at the Jan. 22nd town hall meeting doing just that.