Our Favorite Moments of 2012

I’ll never forget the graduation night of the Lois Gibbs Fellows this year. Like many of our events, our staff and members brought along their families to celebrate their hard work and share a delicious meal. Lois brought down the house, reminding us that working people are how change always happens in this country and reaffirming our commitment to building power and confronting the already-powerful. I’ll never forget the beautiful smiles on our Fellows faces as they received their graduation certificate. As our organizers shared stories about the growth in each of our fellows I felt extremely blessed to be part of a community of such strong and hard-working people. I can’t wait to see the changes each one of them will make in the years to come! Erin Heaney

My favorite moment of 2012 was when over 100 of our members, residents and organizational partners marched to Front Park by the Peace Bridge. We had signs, sang songs, and chanted to tell Governor Cuomo that the community needs an air monitor to measure the diesel exhaust from the 4,000 trucks that run past their homes daily.  At the end one of our members grabbed all the used asthma pumps that we had collected and threw them in a coffin to demonstrate the amount of illness in the community. Everyone started singing. A few months later an air monitor was installed at the base of the bridge. This year demonstrated that when people organize we have the power to make our neighborhoods better places to live. I can’t wait to continue to work with our coalition for a healthy west side in 2013.  Natasha Soto

My favorite moment of 2012 was the morning I found out that Amigone Crematory was issued the Assurance of Discontinuance by the Attorney General. I was reminded that organizing works.  I thought about what the people I am working with have been putting up with over the past 20 years.; the inability to sleep because the smells from the crematory were so bad, the noise, the inability to have their grandchildren over because they were afraid of what types of chemicals were in the air. I met one woman who would vomit because the smells were so bad in her house. When I got the call that the AOD had been issued, and the Amigones had to suspend their operation, I could not wait to call everyone and tell them the news.  I know the fight is not over, but I have been honored to work along-side folks on Werkley, Parker, Springfield, Fries, Maplegrove & Melody Ln this past year and I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday. Rebecca Newberry