I grew up in San Francisco and it's my favorite place in the world. I have 4 children and 10 grandchildren. While I was in San Francisco I worked in both the Civil Rights and Anti War movements. I trained as a community organizer with staff trained by Saul Alinsky and was fortunate to live in a development funded by the ILWU and integrated both racially and socio- economically. The development funded by the ILWU was called , Saint Francis Square. While living in Saint Francis Square I joined with other residents and families living in the adjacent housing projects to protest the quality of education children were receiving at the local elementary school. Through a series of protests and interactions with the press, the parents were able to secure the funding for the school and the parents organization was able to manage the school themselves including developing a budget, hiring new teachers and creating a more relevant curriculum.

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My children and I loved to ride the bus to the San Francisco Zoo, hike through Golden Gate Park, and take the streetcar downtown to shop at the Emporium or go to a movie. We also hiked over the Golden Gate Bridge and explored Fort Point built during the 2nd World War to protect the coast from a hostile invasion. Occasionally we would take the ferry to San Quentin. San Francisco is a beautiful city full of new adventures so we were never bored. Family pets have been an huge part of our family. We have rescued dogs, cats and even a pigeon. They have traveled with us to every new adventure we launched. The dog you see in the picture is Roscoe. Roscoe is a Chocolate Lab. He was a rescue dog who came to live with us in 2003. For seventeen years, every morning Roscoe and I were up at 5 am and out the door for a 2 to 3 hour walk. Rain or shine and weekends we walked, Roscoe had 5 or  6 favorite trails and every day he decided which one we would travel. Roscoe loved coming to work with me and he did almost every day. Roscoe was a loving gentle guy who loved everyone including an alley cat we adopted. In  2020 after 17 years, Roscoe died peacefully in my arms. He was the best friend I ever had.

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My family and I moved to Los Angeles in 1978. We rented a house in Manhattan Beach California and every year Manhattan Beach has a local celebration called, the Hometown Fair. In 1980 while visiting the Hometown Fair, I stopped at a booth hosted by the South Bay Center for Counseling (SBCC). SBCC was a counseling center encouraging folks who wanted to volunteer to come to an orientation. I went and a whole new chapter in my life unfolded.

In the meantime my kids graduated high school, went to college, graduated college launched their careers, married and started a family.

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