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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-05-21 Ad Hoc Commemoration Establishment Committee0ovn°r Gi Town of Reading ' „Y Meeting Minutes �xmn>°� Board - Committee - Commission - Council: Committee Date: 2025-05-21 Building: Reading Public Library Address: 64 Middlesex Avenue Purpose: Attendees: Members - Present: ritULIVEL) TOWN CLERK MA. 2025 JUL -2 AM 7: 42 Ad Hoc Commemoration Establishment Time: 7:00 PM Location: Community Room Session: Open Session Version: Final Eddie Dee, Select Board Appointee Colm Eliet, CATO Appointee Taylor Gregory, Board of Library Trustees Appointee (Zoom) David Monahan, Select Board Designee Monique Pillow Gnanaratnam, Select Board Appointee Pat Silva, Reading Police Department Appointee (Zoom) London, Stith -Nichols School Committee Student Appointee (Zoom) Aujanetta Stith, Office of Equity & Social Justice Appointee Members - Not Present: Ryan Johnstone, School Committee Appointee Greg Selvitelli, Associate Select Board Appointee Others Present: Ilka Walkley (Zoom) Angela Linda Snow-Docksor Reginald Nichols Minutes Respectfully Submitted By: Monique Pillow Gnanaratnam Topics of Discussion: COLM • CATO preparing for Juneteenth • CATO was happy to hear that ACE has gotten a good start and interested in what the committee is doing. DAVID • Reached out to the Selectboard to let them know he was waiting to hear from them. He will report to the board on June 10, 2025. AUJANETTA • The Office of Equity and Social Justice remains in constant contact about what Is happening with ACE. Nothing new to report. LONDON Experienced technical issues and shared additional information near the end of the meeting. Please see below. ILKA WALKLEY Page I i School Committee - a conversation ensued about how families from Boston might be able to support the program. PUBLIC COMMENT: From: Reginald Nichols Spoke with Tom Wise regarding School Committee meetings and London's schedule availability. There was rich discussion about Bill Russell and the desire for youth to be involved. There is great excitement about London being involved. It noted that London would like to be and should be in attendance for future School Committee meetings. DAVID responded: London is doing a great job and going above and beyond to participate. FRIENDS & FAMILY DAY and IUNETEENTH • Taylor: Banner/Sign needs to be created • Tabling for Friends and Family Day, Saturday June 14, 2025, 10:30am-3pm, Birch Meadow playing field. David suggested we attempt to staff in two shifts. • Suggested 10:30-lpm and ipm-3pm, with clean up after. • David, Eddie, Colm, and Monique volunteered to take a shift and support. • Wooden Tree will be donated for use by the Office of Equity and Social Justice. Goal: Create a prompt and encourage participants to create leaves and respond to the determined prompt. Linda shared that she has the folder of Items to assist with the leaves for the tree. Base, sign, and clip that holds the tree together are in the hands of Albert Pless. • Linda will forward the previous prompt information that was used for the recent Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration. A member suggested that we might ask Eddie to find a quote from Bill Russell for the prompt. He agreed and said he would do so after June 4. Eddie offered a table and a pop up tent. David: Suggest that we have an adult version and a child version prompt. David will partner with Eddie in creating a kid's prompt. • Linda responded to a question from Aunjunetta regarding the tree and seeds. Acorns were the seeds. The question was surrounding what might plant the seed of peace. The seed was an Acorn. It was shared that adapted children prompts and adult prompts were used for the Martin Luther King, Jr. program. • Colm asked, should we be promoting luneteenth at the booth? Aujanentta suggested that signs will be present at the event - that many groups will have them at their tables - and we should be able to have them available for our table as well. • London- spoke with the principal of Reading High School and other principals as well. She asked If conversation would be discussed with the Superintendent. Ilka suggested that speaking with the Superintendent directly would be a good idea and imagines he would be super interested. IUNETEENTH - Saturday, June 21, 2025 - to take place the following week. Draft Statement of Intent for luneteenth Event - was discussed. • Taylor shared on screen for review. • Colm suggested that a line in the draft referring to the School Committee and alternate name change for Joshua Eaton can be rephrased to indicate that a discussion is taking place versus a commitment. Different word suggestions were discussed. Aujanetta suggested "that there is exploration" and suggested removing the School Committee altogether. David agreed. • Taylor asked for feedback on the first paragraph. Aunjenetta and Colm shared their support. Page 1 2 • DAVID - Suggested replacing the word run of the mill be replaced in the statement. Suggestion from Aujanetta was agreed upon- "repeated vandalism of personal property. • Discussion regarding grammar and syntax took place regarding "Russell's new home." to selling the "Russells a new home." • Additional changes were reviewed and updated. The importance of accuracy in the statement was discussed. The group discussed a hope that the town will express its acknowledgment of the harm. • Ilka asked if there was a way of saying we can't celebrate achievements without acknowledging the harm that was done. • Letter of intent to be read at the Juneteenth event. • Aujanetta shared that there was an inquiry if ACE would be participating in the Pride Event on June 7, 2025. David suggested that a Flyer could be created Inviting that folks visit the ACE table at the Friends and Family event. • Community Activist Fair - Aujanetta inquired if it would be appropriate for the ACE committee to be involved with the event. Ilka respond to a request to share more Information. There is a series of events happening in MA connecting grass roots group organizations. On June 10, an event will be hosted here in the reading library. Taylor suggested that ACE participation would be good and Taylor would be willing to speak on behalf of ACE. Aujanetta agreed that ACE participation would be nice. APPROVAL OF MINUTES - Minutes reviewed from last meeting Eddie - Attributed that a comment regarding the 1963 break-in statement was not intended, sharing that "it is impossible to determine what happened in'63 and'66. It should be more that I was unable to specify. My belief is that it was the 1966 break in with the defecation on the bed. Unless we speak directly with the family we will never know the real scenario." Taylor read back the notes. Eddie clarified that his belief is that it happened at the Haverhill Street house. Motion to approve made by Eddie Aujanetta - yes Colm - Seconded the minutes Taylor - Yes David abstained Logan -Yes Colm - Yes Ryan - not Present Eddie - Yes Monique - Yes Greg - not present Future Agenda Items: • Next Meetings: Wednesday May 28, 2025 - Board of Trustees meeting room- June 11, 2025 • Bill Russell Quote - discussion for June Meeting • Finalize sign up for Friends and Family Day and Juneteenth • Linda shared thoughts regarding the movie Shared Legacies that was shown by the METCO program and the potential to bring this resource to Reading. The movie about a collaboration between Jewish Committee and Black Community. Monique mentioned she had seen the movie and that it was a good movie. • Aujanetta asked to give London an opportunity to speak. Note: London had computer technical issues throughout the meeting. • Aujanetta expressed the importance of recognizing that everyone who attends this meeting should be recognized and acknowledged; stating "We must acknowledge that a young person has been appointed to work with this committee and should be present at the meetings." David shared it was a good point. • London shared plans on talking to some of the principals and the superintendent about ACE and its purpose to get more involvement and determine if they have any Page 13 questions or ideas. London suggested that perhaps we could find a children's book or make a book that talks about Bill Russesll. It could be given to Elementary schools for the children. Or perhaps someone could read the book to children. • Eddie shared that he put a synopsis of 1963 for Bill Russell on the Google Drive. He shared that it would be be helpful If people would read that to better understand the time sequence. Adjournment Motion - Aunjentta motioned to adjourn Eddien - Seconded David -Yes Aunjeetta- Yes Taylor - Yes COlm - yes Eddie- Yes Monique - Yes Page 1 4