At an event I went to last year, there was a silent auction. Mostly it was gift baskets of things I wouldn't want... coffees, certificates for pedicures, stuffed animal gift baskets, just "stuff". And then I saw that there was a plain clipboard laying in the midst of all this, declaring "Lunch for Two with Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich." Minimum bid: $80.
I thought about it for a nanosecond. Lunch with one of the Big Guys. $80 was steep for lunch, but it meant that he'd have to listen to whatever I wanted to chat about... and I could give this guy an earful about Lyme disease in Southern California. So I WILLED that no one else would even THINK of bidding on this, and they didn't, and I got it.
I invited Lorraine Johnson, executive director of CALDA (California Lyme Disease Association) to be the other guest.
To make a long story short, we had the lunch. We thought it was just going to be with Supervisor Antonovich, but it was with him and all of his deputies -- people who were in charge of education, health, parks and recreation etc. for Los Angeles County! Ten people! Over a great Chinese lunch, we did some serious consciousness-raising and they were a rapt audience and asked very good questions, which meant they were listening. Out of that lunch, Supervisor Antonovich said he'd sponsor a Resolution declaring May 2006 as Lyme Disease Awareness, Education and Prevention Month in the County!
He did what he said he would do, and it happened. It's a step. Another step.
Click on the image to see the Big Tick!
This is a great story and the proclamation is awesome!
Posted by: Phyllis Mervine | Oct 05, 2008 at 11:03 PM