Vince Schilling, Indian Country Today Media Network
After nearly a month of not knowing her fate, Chelsey Ramer, of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, and her family have been informed by Escambia Academy officials that she would not have to pay a copy,000 fine for wearing an eagle feather on her cap during her graduation ceremony in May. (Related story: “Poarch Creek Student Fined for Wearing Eagle Feather at Graduation”)
Escambia interim headmaster David Walker was not able to comment with any specific details about the matter, but he did confirm that Ramer would receive her diploma and would not pay the copy,000 fine.
“The young lady has her diploma; she received it yesterday. She did not have to pay a fine,” said Walker. “The decision was made before graduation. Chelsey has done everything she needed to do to fulfill her graduation requirement.”
Vince Schilling, Indian Country Today Media Network
On June 18 the Senate voted unanimously (94-0) to approve a tribal amendment to the S.744 Immigration reform bill that will add four tribal government officials to the Border Oversight Task Force that was established originally in the bill.
This amendment was offered by Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT) and cosponsored by senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Mark Begich (D-AK), Patty Murray (D-WA), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Border Task Force established in S. 744 which included representatives from local government and law enforcement, civil rights groups, business, private land owners and the Border Patrol, will now have input from tribal representatives from the Northern and Southern regions.
When introduced for a vote on the Senate floor, Sen. Tester lauded the potential contributions of tribal representatives toward the security of our countries borders.
“This amendment will include tribal representatives from the DHS Border Task Force. In this country, within 100 miles of the border we have 13 Indian reservations, some of them right on the border. If we really want to make sure our borders are secure on the North and the South, Indians need to be part of this conversation, our Native American friends.
“They have a unique government-to-government status and their input is critically important this amendment will not cost anything, it has bipartisan support and it will add to tribal representatives, two in the north and two in the southern region,” Tester said.
According to information provided to Indian Country Today Media Network by Tester’s administrators, the amendment would improve border security by improving coordination and communication between DHS and border tribes and by including tribal leaders on the DHS Oversight Task Force responsible for solving problems related to border security.
They also added that, “Indian lands are often desolate and remote, tribal law enforcement resources are spread thin; and communication is poor. In recent years, Indian Affairs Committee hearings revealed that a rising number of smugglers and illegal immigrants have taken advantage of these factors to travel – virtually unnoticed – into the U.S.”
In a recent report, GAO said, “… coordination challenges with tribes have affected the Border Patrol’s ability to patrol and monitor the border so as to prevent and detect illegal immigration and smuggling. Border Patrol officials … reported coordination challenges related to understanding and collaborating with tribes within tribal government rules. Specifically, officials … reported coordination challenges related to tribal government rules that hindered law enforcement in working together to secure the border.”
In a comment to ICTMN via e-mail, Tester voiced his thoughts as to the importance of an Indian voice in the DHS as well as expressing his appreciation for the unanimous support of the amendment.
“As we improve border security, we have a responsibility to make sure that those who live closest to the border have a voice in the process. With 13 Indian Reservations around the country within 100 miles of the border,” said Tester. “My common-sense amendment makes sure that American Indians have a seat at the table, and I’m pleased it passed with unanimous support.”
During today’s airing of the vote on c-span, ICTMN heard one unnamed Senator exclaim, “It’s a good day for Indians.”
Attempting to row the NW Passage by man power alone.
The Arctic Joule out on English BayCNC reporting from Vancouver, Caanada
June 20, 2013
To raise awareness to climate change and its effects, next month a group of eight adventurers will attempt to become the first to row, entirely through their own power, the 3,000 kilometers of Arctic waters above the American continent — that is, the Northwest Passage.
STANDUP (ENGLISH) AL CAMPBELL, CNC correspondent:
“Four Vancouver-based adventurer explorers, two Canadians and two Irishmen, are about to undertake the trip of a lifetime when they attempt a world first in rowing the 3,000 kilometer Northwest Passage entirely by human power in a seven-and-a-half meter boat. The expedition has a serious message in that it is meant to create awareness about the profound effects of climate change on the environment and how the Arctic ice melt will ultimately affect humans and all life forms on the planet.”
Speaking to media in Vancouver Tuesday, the four explorers will leave from Inuvik (IN-YOU-VICK) in Canada’s Northwest Territories July 1st with the goal of rowing 40 to 50 kilometers on average per day. With the sea ice in the Northwest Passage unblocked for only a three-month period in summer, the crew aims to get to Canada’s northern-most territory, Nunavut (NUN-A-VOOT), by September.
Lead rower Kevin Vallely (VAL-E-LEE) told CNC climate change is undoubtedly transforming the Arctic, and thus the world climate, and the voyage will document what’s happening and raise awareness of the phenomenon and its detrimental impact.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) KEVIN VALLELY, Lead rower:
“There is no doubt anymore, we’re causing this. And we’re causing it faster than we ever dreamed. Last year was the lowest extensive ice in the Arctic ever. We just past 400 parts per million in terms of carbon there a few weeks ago. It’s happening and it’s cascading and it’s one of these things, it’s an exponential thing. Imagine the sea ice, the sea ice from space is white. It reflects solar energy back into the atmosphere. Looking at an ocean it’s black and it absorbs it and it just gains heat.”
With the sea ice in the Arctic starting to break up in early July and freezing again in late September, crew member Frank Wolf says each team member will row about 12 hours a day in four-hour shifts.
Frank Wolf is a filmmaker documenting the experience. He says the crew will interview Canada’s Inuit people, the native inhabitants of the area, as well as gather scientific information by, for example, taking water samples, to share with the Canadian government and other organizations.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) FRANK WOLF, Crew member and filmmaker:
“The filming side will just be interviewing a lot of the Inuit up there who have seen how things have changed so dramatically over the last few decades. So to get their personal perspective of what’s gone on with life up there and how it’s affecting them is going to be a very relevant way for us to bring back the story of what’s happening as far as climate change goes in the Northwest Passage.”
To fund their voyage, the expedition has raised about 150 thousand ($150,000) Canadian dollars. About 80,000 dollars have gone into constructing the purpose-built Arctic Joule (JEWEL) boat featuring multiple layers of fiberglass, a reinforced hull, solar power for the electrical equipment, and two cabins to house the crew if needed in rough weather.
In an area rapidly changing with strong winds and large chunks of ice moving around the water, veteran explorer Vallely (VAL-E-LEE) says it won’t be an easy trip in an area where many 19th century explorers died in search of the Northwest Passage.
The route of the Arctic Joule through the Northwest Passage
Despite the Northwest Passage being part of Canada’s sovereign territory, Vallely suggests international dialogue is needed to ensure the proper development of the Arctic but also its protection.
SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) KEVIN VALLELY, Lead rower:
“And we need more dialogue like that, understanding where it’s going, and how quickly it’s changing, and what it means for everyone because we don’t want to move foolhardily into it and make mistakes in such a fragile eco-system we have to be very, very careful. We’ve blown it everywhere else, let’s not blow it there.”
The adventures of the Arctic Joule (JEWEL) can be followed online at www mainstream last first dot com (www.mainstreamlastfirst.com) as the crew will be writing a daily blog and posting images of the trip.
Best of luck to the crew. We’ll be keeping tabs on them.
If you have diabetes and are on Medicare, you have an important decision to make in less than one month.
You have probably heard that Medicare is changing the system through which you get your diabetes testing supplies. So unlike now, when you can order supplies from thousands of mail order companies, beginning July 1 you’ll only be able to order from 18.
There is little question that this new system will be better in the long run. The government will save money and you will see your co-pay and deductible amounts decrease. For example, patients testing one time a day, before July 1, have an average co-pay of approximately $14.47 on their testing supplies. After July 1, for the same order, the co-pay will decrease to approximately $4.49. This is a savings to you of almost 70%! The actual cost may be even lower or no cost at all if you have secondary insurance.
Yet despite these significant benefits, in the short term this new system is causing confusion for patients who must change providers. They don’t know where to begin. And this makes them vulnerable to scammers who might see an opportunity to trick patients into giving personal information.
At Diabetes Care Club, we have heard these types of concerns from people who call searching for a new provider. They are rightly apprehensive about moving to another company and don’t know exactly what questions to ask.
Patients wonder what matters most when choosing a provider. And, of course, the answer to that question depends on what the patient values most. Still, after years in the diabetes care industry, I believe there are some key points that patients and their caregivers should consider before selecting a provider to trust with their healthcare needs.
How much experience does the provider have? A provider should have a proven record of excellence in distributing diabetes supplies and responding to large numbers of customers. If you receive a call or email from a provider and are unsure of their legitimacy, it is important to check your sources before providing any personal information. Medicare will not call patients about this change so if you receive a call claiming to be from Medicare, it is a scam.
Is the provider big enough to handle more customers without disruption? A provider should be able to explain in detail how it has prepared to take on thousands of new customers beginning on July 1.
Is diabetes the provider’s main focus? Ideally, a provider should make diabetes care its top priority rather than spreading its resources over a range of medical issues.
What ordering options does the provider offer? A provider should allow patients to order testing supplies by phone, email, or online and offer convenient hours for customer support.
Does the provider accept “assignment?” All mail-order providers must accept assignment, which means they cannot charge more than the prices set by Medicare. But retail outlets like pharmacies do not have to accept assignment and can charge more. It is important to ask to make sure you are not paying added costs.
What products does the provider stock? A quality provider should offer a wide range of products so that patients can get a product that best meets their needs.
Does the provider handle all the paperwork? A quality provider will handle any paperwork associated with Medicare, saving patients time and effort with these confusing forms.
Does the provider deliver on time and for free? Patients should expect their provider to cover the costs of shipping and guarantee that testing supplies will arrive on time and in proper condition.
I also recommend that patients and their caregivers visit www.NationalDiabetesSupplyFinder.com, a website that helps people find the names of all 18 providers authorized by Medicare and link to their services. Additionally you can contact Medicare directly.
My hope is that by arming people with a few key questions and more information, we can help them make a seamless and stress free switch to a provider they trust. In that way, they will be able to rest assured after July 1 that their supplies will be waiting for them in the mailbox, just as always.
Terry Blankenship is vice president of patient care at Diabetes Care Club, the nation’s 3rd largest provider of diabetic testing supplies and one of only 18 companies authorized to serve Medicare patients. He invites people to email questions to tblankenship@simplexhealthcare.com. For further information on Diabetes Care Club, visit www.diabetescareclub.com. Or call 1-800-376-7521.
Tests due to see if birth control shots will work in feral dogs on Indian reservations
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — A decade ago, the Rosebud Sioux Indians in South Dakota were paying people to catch and shoot wild dogs. Dogs that weren’t caught were covered in mange and parasites. Some froze. Some starved. In packs, they survived be eating each other. And dog bites were 20 times worse than the national average.
Because animals are such an important part of Indian history and culture, tribal leaders called spay and neuter expert Ruth Steinberger. In the next eight years, they worked together to sterilize 7,000 dogs, moving 1,500 of them to other parts of the country for adoption.
Many U.S. tribes still rely on roundups to manage dog overpopulation, but two tribes in the West are going to take part in an experiment this fall using shots of a different kind.
Veterinarians plan to catch and inject 300 wild female dogs with a birth control vaccine that has worked on white-tailed deer, wild horses, wallabies and ferrets.
The two-year test using the government vaccine GonaCon is scheduled to begin in September on two isolated Indian reservations in the West, said Steinberger, the project manager. Reservation officials asked not to be identified until the study is further along.
The $60,000 contraceptive study will be conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Wildlife Research Center and Spay First, Steinberger’s Oklahoma-based organization working to reduce dog overpopulation in chronically poor places around the world.
Right now, the dogs are getting scraps from people who don’t want to see them die — but the litters keep coming.
Steinberger, 56, said she learned a long time ago she could do more to help animals by preventing litters rather than rescuing them. Her work at Rosebud is generally considered a textbook example for ending overpopulation.
“The reservation is a better place. … This is easier to explain in Lakota than in English, but dogs are a part of our lives. They have been in the past and they will be in the future. To be able to take care of them is so important,” explained Belva Black Lance, a Rosebud Sioux community advocate who helps with the dog program.
In the GonaCon test, dogs will be caught, microchipped, tattooed, collared, injected and released, she said.
After a year, researchers will round up as many as they can and do blood tests to measure reaction to the vaccine, Steinberger said.
The hardest part of the study might be that roundup, said Dr. Jeffrey Young, founder of Planned Pethood Plus, another group working globally to end animal overpopulation. He is not involved in the study, but has worked with Steinberger on other projects and is familiar with government-made GonaCon.
“A lot of the animals will die, disappear, get shot, poisoned or hit by a car,” he explained.
“Dogs on reservations have a higher death rate than normal dogs in society,” he said, noting that wild dogs in poor areas live an average 3.2 years. The average American dog lives 10 to 12 years, varying by breed and size.
Depending on who’s counting, there are more than half a billion feral dogs around the world, Steinberger and Young said.
There are an estimated 6 million feral dogs in the United States, Steinberger added.
Tens of thousands of people die of rabies in developing nations each year — and 95 percent of the cases are caused by dog bites, she said.
Spay and neuter surgeries are out of the question in such regions so researchers have been looking for a fast, effective and humane vaccine. The perfect blend would be a combination of sterilization and rabies vaccines, Young said.
“It would be a major game changer,” Young said. Rabies kills up to 40,000 people a year in India alone.
If he had his way, Young would forego the tests. “It’s been tested. They need to get it out there. It should be spread around like candy in India and Mexico,” he said.
GonaCon has worked as long as six years in some of the wild animals tested. Booster shots were given to others to extend sterilization, Steinberger said.
It was never tested on a large number of dogs because no one stepped up to foot the bill.
Petco Foundation donated about half the money for the study.
“Animals are the reason Petco is in business. We are always looking for ways to make their lives better and help with the tragedy of overpopulation,” said foundation executive director Paul Jolly.
Steinberger brought together the tribes, researchers, donors and volunteers.
GonaCon can’t be used on domestic pets, Steinberger emphasized. The Food and Drug Administration would require about a decade of testing and that would cost between $16 million and $20 million, Young said.
Young, who operates a low-cost clinic in Denver, has performed over 165,000 (mostly spay and neuter) surgeries, more than anyone else on the planet, he said.
“I would love for something to put me out of that business,” he said.
Observances and ceremonies are being held across Turtle Island from June 20 to June 26 to celebrate the 2013 National Prayer Days to protect Native American Sacred Places.
“Native and non-Native people gather at this Solstice time for ceremonies and events to honor sacred places, but everyone can honor these precious lands and waters all the time by simply respecting them and not allowing them to be harmed,” said Suzan Shown Harjo, Cheyenne & Hodulgee Muscogee, in a press release announcing the events. She is president of The Morning Star Institute, which organizes the National Sacred Places Prayer Days. “Observances are necessary,” she continued, “because Native peoples are engaged in myriad struggles with developers that endanger or destroy Native sacred places.”
While running for president in 2008, then-Senator Barack Obama addressed the issue of sacred places in his Native American policy platform for religious freedom, cultural rights and sacred places protection: “Native American sacred places and site-specific ceremonies are under threat from development, pollution, and vandalism. Barack Obama supports legal protections for sacred places and cultural traditions, including Native ancestors’ burial grounds and churches.”
As the release from The Morning Star Institute notes, “the growing disparity between the campaign’s promises and the administration’s actions has dismayed many Native peoples.”
And even though a memorandum of understanding was signed at the end of 2012 by five federal entities to “improve the protection of and tribal access to Indian sacred sites through improved interdepartmental coordination and collaboration,” between the departments of Defense, Interior, Agriculture, Energy and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, the institute feels it “does nothing of substance to protect sacred places.” (Related story: “Federal Departments Sign Sacred Sites Protection Agreement“)
This year marks the 11th that the National Prayer Days are being observed. The first National Prayer Day was held June 20, 2003 to show Congress that a need to protect sacred places exists. That need still exists.
An observance will be held in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, June 20 at 8:30 a.m. on the United States Capitol Grounds, West Front Grassy Area. This observance is organized by The Morning Star Institute and the public is welcome to attend to honor sacred places, sacred beings and sacred waters.
Indian Country Today Media Network will be spotlighting a few of these sacred places throughout the week. Click here for a full list of gatherings happening all week.
The Puerto Rico Senate Agriculture Committee held a hearing last Monday on a bill (PS624) that would create a Seed Board and a certification and licensing system to regulate the development and sale of seeds in Puerto Rico.
“Monsanto does not produce, sell (or) offer… basic or certified seed with the purpose of planting in Puerto Rico”, said company representative Eric Torres-Collazo in a letter to the committee explaining the decision not to testify. He also claimed that the company’s activities are not subject to regulation by the Puerto Rican legislature.
Technically Torres-Collazo is correct on at least one count – all the harvest produced by Monsanto and other transnational seed enterprises in the island is exported for use abroad as seed. A major market is the U.S. where most corn and soy is derived from genetically modified varieties.
But Puerto Rico has also been a major location for the development of genetically modified crops since 1987, conducting open air field tests on corn and soy, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. Crops developed on the island and other Monsanto research locations have a number of unusual properties – some are resistant to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide or any herbicide with glyphosate as active ingredient. Others secrete an insecticidal toxin called Bt and there are even combination strains that combine both these traits.
Committee chair senator Ramón Ruiz-Nieves of the Popular Democratic Party told the media that he intends to summon Monsanto again, insisting that the company should be regulated locally since it receives substantial local and U.S. government subsidies for its activities in Puerto Rico, and is registered with the local Agriculture Department as a bona fide farmer.
Monsanto has also been embroiled in a legal controversy over the fact it plants crops on 1,500 acres, despite the fact that Puerto Rico’s 1952 constitution prohibits agricultural landholdings larger than 500 acres. http://www.80grados.net/tus-contribuciones-enriquecen-a-monsanto/ In May, Puerto Rico Agriculture Secretary Myrna Comas, a well known food security scholar, referred this matter to the Puerto Rico Justice Department, requesting a legal opinion.
Local media reports have pointed out the irony that despite the fact that Monsanto is in apparent violation of the Puerto Rico constitution, it has received $4.9 million in subsidies from the local Agriculture Department to help it cover payroll expenses from 2006 to 2013.
The Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture and Juan Santiago-Cabán, operations manager of Monsanto in Puerto Rico, did not respond to CorpWatch’s interview requests.
Meanwhile local farmers have publicly rallied to the cause. An April 24 event to induct Monsanto, the global leader in seed sales and biotechnology, into the Puerto Rico Agricultural Hall of Fame, became the target of protest by local farmers who are angry about the company’s role in developing genetically modified crops on large plots of land on the island.
The Hall of Fame was set up by Acción y Reforma Agrícola (ARA), a farm lobby group founded by agribusinessman Pedro Vivoni, who owns Agro Servicios, a farm supply company. (Monsanto represents 18 percent of Agro Servicios’ business, according to coverage by the local media). The Hall of Fame has been endorsed by the Agronomists Association (Colegio de Agrónomos) and the Agriculture Department of Puerto Rico, which gave ARA a $5,000 donation earlier this year.
In late May, Monsanto faced a major public relations setback when its genetically modified wheat was found growing in an Oregon farm. (This is despite the fact that test plantings of genetically modified wheat ended in 2005, and it has never been approved for use in any country in the world)
Monsanto also scored big last March when a bill signed by U.S. President Barack Obama into law (in order to prevent a government shutdown) included a “farmer assurance provision” clause that allows farmers to plant genetically modified crops before they have been declared safe by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This clause has been nicknamed the Monsanto Protection Act by activists and biotech critics.
“The Monsanto Protection Act is an outrageous example of a special interest loophole,” said U.S, Senator Jeff Merkley , a Democrat from Oregon who is trying to get it repealed. “This provision nullifies the actions of a court that is enforcing the law to protect farmers, the environment and public health. That is unacceptable.”
“I am excited to get back behind the wheel for SR2 this weekend,” stated White. “I drove for the team in a few events last year and really got to know everyone very well. We were running solidly inside the Top 10 at Montreal last year before getting caught up in someone else’s mess on the last lap.That familiarity sure does help and I will look to use that to my advantage when we unload at Road America. I am appreciative of the support of VIP Poker this week as well and I look forward to putting on a great show for them.”
The Road America event will be White’s fifth career start in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. He made four starts in the 2012 season with SR2 Motorsports with a best finish of 18th at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal.
He also has three career starts in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series and 30 in the NASCAR Canadian Tire Series where he was the Rookie of the Year in 2010.
“It is great to have Derek back with our SR2 team,” added SR2 Motorsports team owner Jason Sciavicco. “We had some great races together last year and everyone expects another solid performance this weekend at Road America.
We should have had a top-10 finish at the Montreal road course event last year but some bad luck on the last lap ruined that. Road America is a very exciting race and Derek is a strong road racer so we feel a fun weekend is ahead of us.”
The running of the Johnsonville Sausage 200 at Road America begins at 5:00 p.m./ET on Saturday, June 22. The race can be viewed live nationally on ESPN and heard on affiliated MRN radio stations and on Sirius NASCAR Radio 90.
Facebook/Nobel Women’s Initiative Founding members of the Nobel Women’s Initiative, six of the 10 Peace Prize laureates who signed a letter on June 17 urging President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to reject the Keystone XL pipeline.
Indian Country Today Media Network
Firmly linking the Keystone XL pipeline with climate change, 10 Nobel Peace Prize winners are urging President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to reject the project.
“Climate change threatens all of us, but it is the world’s most vulnerable who are already paying for developed countries’ failure to act with their lives and livelihoods,” wrote the Nobel laureates in a June 17 letter to Obama and Kerry. “This will only become more tragic as impacts become worse and conflicts are exacerbated as precious natural resources, like water and food, become more and more scarce. Inaction will cost hundreds of millions of lives—and the death toll will only continue to rise.”
Indigenous leader Rigoberta Menchú Tum of Guatemala, who was awarded the peace prize in 1992, was among the signers. Besides Menchú, the letter was signed by Mairead Maguire and Betty Williams, both of Ireland, who won in 1976; Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, 1984; Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, 1980, Argentina; José Ramos Horta, East Timor, 1996; Jody Williams, United States, 1997; Shirin Ebadi, Iran, 2003; Tawakkol Karman, Yemen, 2011, and Leymah Gbowee, Liberia (2011).
This was the second time Nobel laureates had appealed to the President about Keystone XL. In September 2011, nine honorees signed a similar letter, including Menchú, Maguire, Williams, Tutu, Esquivel, Ramos Horta, Williams and Ebadi. His Holiness the Dalai Lama also signed the earlier letter. Last week’s letter was dated the same day that the outgoing U.S. Ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson, told the Associated Press it is a “very important decision.”
Just a few days earlier, former Vice President Al Gore, a 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner for his anti–climate change activism, had called Keystone XL “an atrocity” in an interview with the Guardian. He said Obama would do well to focus his energy instead on a comprehensive climate change plan.
“This whole project [Keystone XL] is an atrocity but it is even more important for him to regulate carbon dioxide emissions,” Gore told the British newspaper, adding that curtailing carbon dioxide emissions from power plants would go far in counteracting global warming.
Gore’s sentiments were in line with those expressed in the letter to Obama, though he was not among the signers. Contending that turning down Keystone XL would curtail or limit development in the oil sands of Alberta, Canada, the Nobel laureates, too, urged the Obama Administration to take a global lead on combating climate change and spearheading the movement away from fossil fuels. Many of the signees belong to the Nobel Women’s Initiative, established in 2006 by six of the 15 women who have received the Nobel Peace Prize in the 110 years it has been awarded.
“Like millions of others, we were buoyed by words in the President’s second inaugural address: ‘We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that failure to do so would betray our children and future generations,’ ” the letter stated. “Mr. President and Secretary Kerry, this is an opportunity to begin to fulfill that promise. While there is no one policy or action that will avoid dangerous climate change, saying ‘no’ to the Keystone XL pipeline is a critical step in the right direction. Now is the time for unwavering leadership.”
Artists of all ages are invited to submit original works of art that illustrate diversity in conjunction with the City of Marysville’s first annual Multicultural Festival, set for Sept. 28.
The Marysville Arts Coalition, in partnership with the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Diversity, is managing the art contest. Artists are encouraged to submit two-dimensional art that illustrates the council’s theme of “Diversity Works: Sharing Similarities, Celebrating Differences.” Winners will be chosen in several age-based categories, and the grand prize winner’s work will be displayed on the festival’s program cover. Deadline for submissions is August 2, 2013.
Members of the diversity council, which is chaired by Marvetta Toler, reflect the racial, ethnic and socio-economic diversity of the Marysville-Tulalip area, ranging from individual citizens to frontline employees who work with various ethnic individuals and families, along with practitioners in the fields of multicultural and gender equity. The council has prepared a two-year work plan, and the organization of a citywide multicultural festival has been in the works for several months.
The Marysville Arts Coalition was asked to participate in the festival planning, specifically for oversight and judging of the community arts contest. Members of MAC are also involved in helping to arrange the festival’s entertainment schedule.
Art contest entries must include the artist’s name, mailing address, phone and email address. Youth entries should also include the artist’s age, grade and school, and the parents’ names.
Contest prizes include a $25 gift card and ribbon for each division winner and a Grand Prize worth up to $300, selected from among the division winners and announced at the multicultural fair. All artwork will be on display during the one-day festival.
Only one entry per person can be accepted. Artwork and the accompanying artist information must be submitted to City Hall, 1049 State Ave., by 4 p.m. August 2.
The