A Message of Thanks From the Democrats of the Desert

Dear Democrats of the Desert Members & Friends,

We want to send you all our sincerest thanks for attending our Champions of Activism Awards this past Sunday. There was such incredible energy, enthusiasm and ‘surprises’ in the Heritage Palms Country Club Ballroom. It was wonderful to honor our recipients Dori Smith, Bill Simpkins and our out- going President Priscilla Richardson.

Our hearts melted with pride and compassion as we watched the young ROTC Marine Color Guard march into the ballroom. We honored our veterans and we heard the beautiful voice of local high school student Kiana Tavares as she sang the National Anthem.

We gave certificates of appreciation and recognition to our local Young Democrats. Many of you have known them from their campaign work with our local dignitaries but many of you got to meet them for the first time at our event. They are spirited young Democrats and we will be hearing from them in the future.

We were very pleased to 'surprise' our guests with a streaming video from Congressman Raul Ruiz. In the video the Congressman congratulated the Activist Award recipients and thanked our club members for all they did for local democrats during the last election period. His heartfelt thanks filled everyone with pride and set the tone for a fantastic awards ceremony.

You all were amazed by the powerful speech our Assemblymember and Keynote Speaker Eduardo Garcia gave to our group. We are so lucky to have such a dedicated, hard working and committed Assemblymember in our Valley. His continued work for the environment, fighting for fair wages for our residents, authoring of a successful California park bond and partnering with CVHC to honor the legacy of Cesar E. Chavez with a community book drive are some of the many ways our Assemblyman makes our Valley a better place to live. Many attendees commented they were more ‘hopeful’ after hearing Assembymember Garcia’s speech.

In addition thank you for your support of our incredible Auction. There were so many generous people who gave for the cause. Our amazing and talented auction committee made it a breeze! We hope you enjoy the treasures and adventures you won. The money we raise goes to help elect democrats so thank you.

Thanks also to Comedian Don Friesen who gave us all some much needed laughter (www.funnydon.com and www.Donfriesen.com ). It felt just plain good to laugh! Don said he enjoyed being with the Democrats of the Desert and has now added a Palm Desert/Palm Springs/Indio tab on his website!

And last but not least thank you to the best board of directors & volunteers any club could ever have!

So again our grateful thanks for the opportunity to be with you all on a very special day….what an honor it is to be a Democrat and remember… Commit to Activism!