One Colorado Alternative Winter Break: January 13th, 2012

A photo of Shannon and our group. 

Sadly, today was our final day of working with One Colorado. Our day began similarly to most other days. We started off meeting with Shannon in the One Colorado office, and listened as Shannon debriefed us on the previous day’s activities, and also informed us of what we could expect to do that day. After our short discussion, we set to work doing important clerical and organizational work around the One Colorado office. One Colorado is passionate about connecting constituents to their congressmen and women. In order to accomplish this, One Colorado asks LGBT Coloradans and their allies to fill out post cards that will eventually be mailed to state legislators. We began our day by organizing these cards into piles, based on house and senate districts. Others of us entered the contact information given on these cards into databases, for future use and contact. Others of us organized filing cabinets and other storage spaces used throughout the office. Still others entered the e-mail addresses of those in support of the civil union bill, which were gathered last night over the phone. After a delicious lunch at St. Mark’s, a local coffee shop that has become a favorite amongst our group, we headed back to the office to work closely with Daniel Ramos, a One Colorado employee, and the Program Manager for the Colorado GSA Network. Daniel had had a very busy week, and we had yet to formally introduce ourselves to him, so we began our meeting with Daniel with a final round of sincere introductions. After introductions, Daniel explained to us that he was currently in the process of tracking all public school districts in Colorado, and ensuring that their anti-bullying, anti-harassment, and non-discrimination policies were up to date, and offered full protection to LGBT students. Forty-one school districts across the state had yet to send copies of their policies to Daniel at the One Colorado office. Therefore, after an in-depth debriefing and discussion, Daniel set us to work calling these school districts, and asking them to send in copies of their policies. We were relieved and much more relaxed, in comparison to our phone bank experience the previous evening. We knew that since we were calling school districts, those on the other line would be kind and polite, and would also be required by law to discuss their non-discrimination and anti-bullying policies. This was our final administrative project. After working with Daniel, we sat down with Shannon for what was to be our final discussion and debriefing. We ended the day with an activity that we had also conducted at the end of our session on Monday. This was the “Think, Feel, Do” activity. We all took a moment, and thought about what we had felt during the week; what we had learned during the week; and what we now planned to do as a result. I personally stated that I felt encouraged and supported to be openly gay in an open and welcoming environment.  I also stated that I felt inspired to continuously strive to live a more open and authentic life in the months and years ahead. I ended by stating that I learned that individual people can and do make a difference. We were saddened to leave Shannon, her team, and the accepting and welcoming environment at One Colorado. However, we were filled to the brim with excitement, ideas, and energy. On the car ride home we talked at length about the ideas that we had for bringing our experiences and knowledge back to Kansas, and relating it to our day to day lives. The energy in our vehicle was tangible, and I believe whole-heartedly that we are going to make some noise when we return to Lawrence. KU, are you ready?