In Celebration of Community Organizers

On Thursday, January 15, hundreds of community organizers, Trinity students, alumnae, faculty and friends gathered in the Trinity Center for Women and Girls in Sports to celebrate the inauguration of Barack Obama. Attendees included dozens of leaders of nonprofit and service organizations, educators, foundation leaders and public officials. The festive luncheon featured a keynote by Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman.

Prior to the luncheon, service organizations had information tables for Trinity students to network with and learn about volunteer and internship opportunities. After the networking session, lunch commenced with the presentation of flags by a Girl Scout Color Guard. Trinity senior and president of the Student Government Association Nicole Newman gave an invocation, after which guests enjoyed a festive lunch and each other’s company.

Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children’s Defense Fund, has been an advocate for disadvantaged Americans for her entire professional life. Under her leadership, CDF has become the nation’s strongest voice for children and families. The Leave No Child Behind mission of the Children’s Defense Fund is to ensure every child a “Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start” in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. In her speech, she said, “…I hope now that we have a president of the United States who is a community organizer that … we all have to become community organizers; we are going to do the job of building a nation, a world, that is fit for every child, every human being.

She continued, “This is our American family today: one in six of our children lives in poverty in the richest nation on earth, more than 40% of them in extreme poverty. God did not make two classes of children. The hard work now begins.”

“We wanted to mark this historic inauguration with a special celebration that recognizes those who make the Washington region – and this world – a better place by helping others,” said President Patricia McGuire. “As a university that is committed to making education accessible, and that has thousands of graduates who are in education and the nonprofit sector, we thought that a celebration of community organizers is the right theme.”