(Kat Bruner James, Chair of Citizens for a Fair Ferndale, August 2011)
Citizens for a Fair Ferndale (CFF) has been on summer break since May, but we resumed operations in early July and are working toward some great programs this fall (more below). However, before we began our summer break, we had the pleasure of participating in our second installment of our newest program.
Last year, CFF partnered with Ferndalien Richard Latimer, who established the William L. Cronin Diversity Scholarship. Through this partnership, Latimer was able to receive matching funds from his employer, Chevron. Latimer started the scholarship program following the death of his partner, Mr. Cronin. The program memorializes Cronin and continues his legacy of promoting diversity. The scholarships are awarded to Ferndale High School seniors based on their essay submissions on the subject of diversity.
This year, CFF is proud to announce that this year’s William L. Cronin Diversity Scholarship winners are Miranda Ajulufoh and Margaret Maiorana. We have provided excerpts from their essays below; the full text is available on our website at www.fairferndale.org.
More CFF events coming up:
This fall, CFF is planning another candidate forum for the Mayoral and City Council elections that will be held on Tuesday, November 1. Please watch our website and this publication for more information as those plans progress.
The mission of Citizen’s for a Fair Ferndale is to foster a community that is dedicated to the fair and equal treatment of all residents and visitors regardless of sexual orientation, race, color, religion, gender, age, height, weight, familial status, national origin, physical or mental disability. Check our website or email CFF48220@gmail.com for more information. You can also “Like” us on Facebook; see www.facebook.com/fairferndale.
Miranda Ajulufoh (excerpt)
Diversity enriches lives and allows the world to be a better place in a many different aspects. Even today, we see companies hiring people of different races and ethnic backgrounds and we see different countries and nations joining together. This is because by embracing diversity everyone can reach their potential and achieve a common goal. Think of how many good ideas a group of people can come up with to solve a problem if they have a variety of people with different backgrounds who can all contribute and input different opinions. If everyone were to realize how diversity serves as a strong, positive influence on individual spirits and communities, the world will continue to be a better place for us, people will live in peace, benefits from each other and accomplish more jointly. When I go to college, I would like to study abroad so that I can travel the world and witness difference cultures and they way people live in other countries. I plan to take the knowledge I learn from studying abroad to further my desire to promote the acceptance of diversity and encourage others to follow the simple but easily forgotten lessons we all learned in kindergarten – treat everyone fairly, be kind, share.
Diversity must not only be acknowledged, it must be embraced. In order to do this, people must go into every situation with an open mind. A person with an open mind will go far in life. It is open minds and accepting hearts that are the gateway to success. With these tools in tow, anything is possible. Having an open mind will lead people to ‘pop’ their bubble of awareness and look at people beyond face value. Once the bubbles are popped, finding core commonalities between people will not be hard. It all comes down to the fact that everybody has basic human needs, desires, and emotions. Every person can relate to every other person in the world in one way or another. Once this basic concept is realized and applied world-wide, there will be drastic changes. Not only will discrimination be eradicated, world peace will be plausible.