Chavez breakfast hosts 600
 City Manager Ed Beasley stands with Glendale Chamber Foundation President Martin Samaniego and a poster with the Cesar Chavez stamp. Beasley received the Glendale Chamber Foundation’s “Celebrating Diversity” award. |
More than 600 people wanted to attend the Fifth Annual Cesar Chavez “Celebrating Diversity” Breakfast held March 28 at Glendale Civic Center. Alas, the Glendale Chamber Foundation had to cut off reservations at that magic number. It was the largest attendance in the event’s history.
Mayor Elaine Scruggs said Chavez created awareness in the minds and hearts of others about actions that were wrong. She mentioned political statements heard on television and radio about “change.”
“But nobody, not one person, can change the minds and hearts of others,” Scruggs said. “But each of us can take responsibility to change our own hearts and minds.”
Lydia Aranda, president of the board of Arizona Cesar Chavez Foundation, said she was fortunate to be able to work with “so many and see what we can do to serve the community.”
Aranda continues her work in her career as vice president of multi-cultural relations with Wells Fargo Bank.
Added to the comments about Chavez’s fight for equality and his legacy of positive, anti-violent change were monetary contributions in the way of grants from the Glendale Chamber Foundation. The organization, a separate entity of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce, gave the Arizona Cesar Chavez Foundation a $5,000 check to carry on its work of teaching Chavez’s legacy in schools statewide.
For its education grant, the foundation chose Glendale Community College to receive a $10,000 check to continue its ACE-Plus program for high school students. The program offers college programs that allows students to receive an associate degree upon high school graduation.
GCC President Velvie Green said 90 to 95 percent of ACE students graduate from high school, and 80 percent go on to obtain a college degree.
Edmund Hidalgo, president and CEO of Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC), talked about his upbringing in San Luis, a border community south of Yuma, Chavez’s birthplace. Hidalgo said he could remember rallies headed by Chavez, and like Chavez, began his working career on farms from Blythe to Fresno and Santa Maria, Calif. He eventually attended Arizona State University, and said that shortly after he graduated, the university gave Chavez an honorary doctorate.
“I’m proud to call him a fellow alumnus,” Hidalgo said. “Cesar was about action, mentoring others to do good in our community. Each of us, as a community, has a contribution to add to the betterment of our community.
“Cesar was about helping others. He was a very common man.”
Hidalgo said in his office at CPLC he has a portrait of Chavez “to remind us of his legacy, but (also) to remind us of the importance of serving our community.”
City Manager Ed Beasley was this year’s recipient of the “Celebrating Diversity” award from the foundation.
Martin Samaniego, foundation president, said Beasley, appointed to his post in January 2002, provided critical supervision and leadership.
“He wanted to make sure city staff looked like the city it serves,” Samaniego said.
Beasley said he was humbled by the award, and cited “so many people in this room who make up the diversity of this organization.”
He said one of the things he has learned in his life is, “the improbable and impossible are always a reality if you have faith.
“Si Se Puede! actually embodies what Glendale has done.”