Night of Respect
“Day of Respect” in the Modesto City high schools was founded in 1998 by Sharon Froba, a Modesto High School English teacher who daily witnessed disrespectful speech and behavior on her campus and determined to do something to allow her students to feel the effects of intolerance. She brought community volunteers with stories of life with disabilities, or discrimination based on ethnic identity, skin color or sexual orientation. Her aim was “to change the world, one heart at a time.”
Sharon Froba has worked with the Witness Commission to create a “Night of Respect” for our congregation. Please come to Faith Bites for dinner at the usual time, 6 PM on May 21 and stay to celebrate diversity by listening with an open heart to three personal stories. The program begins at 7 PM. Our speakers will be our own Mike Castaneda, who looks at his life as a Latino in a majority Anglo culture; Rene Patterson, who grew up as an African-American in the segregated Southeast; and Jeanette Rosenthal, who learned something about her daughter that turned her world upside down.
Plan to listen and dialog with these three persons. Questions are welcome at the end of each person’s story. There will be an opportunity for further informal visiting in the narthex at the end of the evening, where punch and cookies will be served.
The Witness Commission is sponsoring this event to help us as a congregation begin to live more fully into our Welcome Statement.