Title
Laura Russello for Liberty Bell Award
Memorandum
PROCLAMATION
Laura Russello for Liberty Bell Award
March 19, 2009
WHEREAS, Laura Russello is a community organizer in Ann Arbor, since 2008 as the Executive Director of “Peaceworks,” a 501 (c) (3) organization, that produces various educational events with speakers, panel discussions, marches, and rallies, and distributes a weekly media newsletter to over 3,200 subscribers; and
WHEREAS, Laura Russello, prior to joining Peaceworks, has worked with homeless youth in Colorado, educated South African teenagers about HIV, was a policy specialist for Clean Water Action in Michigan, researched tobacco education outreach to youth and adults, and graduated from the University of Michigan School of Public Health with a Masters Degree in Public Health; and
WHEREAS, Laura Russello has directed projects to help high school and college students become effective advocates and involved citizens, including production of a documentary about racism in schools and an exchange project between Willow Run and Ann Arbor students; she has organized a civil liberties initiatives concerning immigrant rights and the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East; and she has collaborated with local artists on a "peace" mural and other multi-media projects; and
WHEREAS, Laura Russello’s passionate advocacy with “Veterans for Peace,” in organizing the Iraqi Water Project, to help the 2/3 of Iraqi citizens without access to clean water, earned the Project the unanimous endorsement of City Council on March 2, 2009; and
WHEREAS, Each year the Washtenaw County Bar Association honors one local non-lawyer with the Liberty Bell award, for outstanding service in one or more of the following areas:
1. Promoting a better understanding of our Constitution and Bill of Rights;
2. Encouraging greater respect for law and the courts;
3. Stimulating a deeper sense of individual responsibility so that citizens recognize their duties as w...
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