Cooper/Howard
Hispanic/Latino Group
August 26, 2004
Taylor’s Bakery
ATTENDING: Lisa
Brininstool (Americorps from Centro Latino Columbia), Andres Melendez, Jamie
Thomson, Chris Angelo, Tom White, Juanita White, Erin Shiloh and Erin Eggers
(Adelante from The Missourian), Roz Gordon, Art Schneider.
Festival of Lights: Art reported that he has
attempted to recon tact the Brazilian Students Association at M. U. with an
e-mail that the association provided. That e-mail bounced, so he is retrying
with the original contact. This would be a first attempt at an international
booth at the festival. If the group is unable to re-establish contact with the
Brazilian students, the booth idea may nee to be dropped this year.
Roz Gordon, co chair of the Boonville Festival Lights, encouraged the group have
a booth at the festival. Cost is $15. Roz noted that the set-up is prior to 5:30
p.m. The booths are open 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., though there is a slowdown in
activity about 7:30 p.m. She suggested that the booth have some activity that
young children would find attractive and interactive. Art thought he might be
able to adapt some pipes he and a colleague use with tennis balls and have
children carry the ball in the pipe to a container. For older youth blindfolded
parents could carry the ball and the older children give the parents directions.
Roz said the merchants prefer to have a variety of activates at the booths so
that visitors will have a number of attractions the length of the downtown
festival corridor.She also suggested a brochure on the Cooper/Howard
Hispanic/Latino Group.
Raquel noted that Hispanic displays are very colorful and she suggested that
bright colors be incorporated into a booth.
Roz said a booth is eight to 12 feet in length. Art noted that his office should
be able to provide one table that night. Master Hardeners will be using the
office’s second table. Roz said that there are food booths along the corridor
that already have been allocated. She did suggest a sign-up sheet for those
interested in being informed about the two-county Hispanic/Latino group.Art
offered that brochures being proofed tonight that are English/Spanish could be
provided. He also said distributed (and could have at the booth) early childhood
booklets on the West Nile Virus.Lisa said that Centro Latino could have
materials available to distribute and Erin Eggers said that Adelante would be
interested in having information there and also past copies of the tabloid. Art
will contact Carrie Tyler of Marshall Centro Latino to see if she wishes to
participate. Art said he did not have posts for hanging, but did have two flag
posts in the Extension Center with stands and that the flags could be taken off
to support a banner. Raquel designed a booth while the meeting was proceeding.
She and Andres (formerly known as Andy) will work on putting together a booth.
(Raquel and Tom’s son will be quarterbacking for LSE School that night so they
will kiss the actual festival.Roz will FAX a contract to the Extension Center in
the morning.
Brochures—The Cooper County M. U. Extension
Center has revised the earlier draft of the Welcome to Boonville brochure with
an English/Spanish version. There were some discrepancies between the English
and Spanish versions and the group went page by page through the 21-page
brochure (not including the notes pages) with changes and corrections. Art will
take it back to the Extension Center for a finalized brochure to be distributed
Sept. 16.
English as Second Language—Art and Jamie
have requested partial funding of ESL books through a one-time M. U. Extension
grant program. In addition, the have requested funding the pen-pal/exchange
between Cooper County and Centro Latino, for the Issues Forum and a number of
other Latino programs. Art said he hopes to hear the results on the proposals by
the second week of September. The grants are competitive.
Sister City—Christina Velasquez-Case has
been reactivated—at least temporarily--by the National Guard. So, within a
month, she has shifted from mortarboard to helmet. At the end of September she
will be in Florida. So, we will e in continuous contact with her by e-mail and
hopefully she will be able to rejoin our group and meetings in the near future.
She sent a note to Art that she has contacted Centro Latino to begin the process
of an electronic pen pal program.
Lisa then reported that the program has been operating this summer and is
reconfiguring with the start of school. It is for elementary age children to
fifth grade and meets Mondays and Thursdays from 3:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at
Centro Latino to assist children with their homework. Their parents typically
are in unskilled positions and work long hours and do not speak fluent English.
At this time Centro Latino has eight computers.
Tom suggested that we spread the next of possible partners from Boonville and
perhaps begin with Bunceton. After discussions, the following are to contact the
schools to determine their level of interest and establish a contact:
Tom—David Barton
Raquel—Ss. Peter & Paul
Art—Bunceton School
Those interested in participating will be put in contact with Lisa via e-mail to
begin the process. It was noted that the funding request submitted to M. U.
Extension provided for some monies for transportation and refreshments for
social interaction between participants in Columbia and Cooper County.
Lisa noted the limited English of the Latino parents. However, bilingual
children commonly serve as translators for their parents in interactions with
the native population. So this was no seen as a barrier.
September 30 Issues Forum—Jamie distributed
a copy of the Issue Forum magazine that participants will receive at the
beginning of the program. She said that a letter has been prepared add cosigned
by the Boonville mayor as an introduction to the forum. It will be mailed
September 1. All 32 who are on the list have been contacted and plan to attend.
A week before the forum a second reminder mailing will be about with two
additional pages of materials on the Immigration topic and three perspectives.
Jamie also reported that she has met with one moderator ad the recorded and
previewed the video with them. A second moderator will be reviewing the
materials shortly. She asked Andres if Immanuel or Thrivent would be able to
provide some basic refreshments, such as beverages for the forum. Andre will
work on this.
Tom will arrange for a video projection for that night.
A pre-meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 23, to finalize the
layout for the forum and be certain all is ready. Lisa from Centro Latino will
be at the forum. She attended a preview of the materials earlier in the day with
one moderator and the recorder.
At this time it appears that the preliminary planning is largely complete.
Art asked both Adelante (Missourian) reporters to be there and they are planning
to cover the event. Karen Ratay-Green of the Boonville Daily News also will be
thee. Art will be contacting Ted Bleil of KWRT with an invitation and see if Ted
can interview Jamie about the forum beforehand.
Next Meeting: Because there will be a preliminary final check of facilities at
4:30 p.m. Sept. 23, the next meeting will follow it at 5 p.m. Sept. 23 at
Immanuel Lutheran, for those who wish to after that meeting, refreshments at
LaHacienda.