Brian Gershon

Congratulations to Mark Okazaki from Neighborhood House (which has a location here at New Rainier Vista in Seattle) and Jon Ramer from Interra Project for their upcoming awards from the Center for Ethical Leadership.

This award “celebrates Puget Sound leaders whose vision, commitment and unceasing efforts are significantly advancing social, environmental, and economic justice.”

Tickets are available for the 4th Annual Bill Grace Leadership Legacy Awards Dinner on March 5th, 2009.

My experience with Neighborhood House is through our monthly Multicultural Committee meeting here at New Rainier Vista, where they provide language translation.  (Translation and support of this committee is also provided by Seattle Housing Authority, as well as my neighbors living here) .  Our community has native speakers from Somalia, Ethiopia, China, and Vietnam.

The Interra Project “provides consumers with the incentives they need to shift their purchasing habits to support the health of their communities by shopping with locally-focused, environmentally and sustainably-minded businesses.”  I was part of the team that built the Boston Community Change website.  Now there is a  Puget Sound Community Change in our local community.  You can sign-up for a community change card for free and use when purchasing at local businesses, or if you own a business you can offer your services to those who have cards.

Both the Interra Project and Center for Ethical Leadership are clients (and friends) of ours at Web Collective and we support the great work they are doing.