Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast

Activist Dolores Huerta to Headline Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast and Sen. Mark Leno to be Honored. Outstanding Youth Enrique Campos will share his story and the Outstanding GSA Advisor will be recognized. The breakfast will honor the memory of Harvey Milk, an American hero, and strengthen coalitions among the many diverse community organizations that support justice and equality for all individuals. Join more than 650 diverse Coachella Valley residents and celebrate the memory of this influential civil rights activist. Tables of 10 start at $600 and sponsor recognition available. For more information visit bit.ly/MILKPS or contact Ron deHarte at ron@pspride.org. Long-time Union Activist Dolores Huerta will be the keynote speaker at the Fifth Annual Coachella Valley Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast on Friday, May 20, 2016 at the Palm Springs Convention Center and State Senator Mark Leno (D-11th District) will be this year’s recipient of the Harvey B. Milk Leadership Award of the Coachella Valley. Dolores Huerta is an activist and labor leader who co-founded what would become the United Farm Workers. In the early 1950s, she completed a teaching degree at Delta Community College, part of the University of the Pacific. She briefly worked as an elementary school teacher. Huerta saw that her students, many of them children of farm workers, were living in poverty without enough food to eat or other basic necessities. To help, she became one of the founders of the Stockton chapter of the Community Services Organization (CSO). The CSO worked to improve social and economic conditions for farm workers and to fight discrimination. To further her cause, Huerta created the Agricultural Workers Association (AWA) in 1960. Through the AWA, she lobbied politicians on many issues, including allowing migrant workers without U.S. citizenship to receive public assistance and pensions and creating Spanish-language voting ballots and driver's tests. In 1962, she co-founded a workers' union with Cesar Chavez, which was later known as the United Farm Workers (UFW). Huerta stepped down from her position at the UFW in 1999, but continues her work to improve the lives of workers, immigrants and women. She has received many honors for her activism, including the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom Award (1993) and the Eleanor Roosevelt Award (1998). Huerta, mother of 11 children, was inducted to the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993. This year’s recipient of the Harvey B. Milk Leadership Award of the Coachella Valley, State Senator Mark Leno was elected to the California Senate in 2008. He currently represents the 11th Senate District of California, and chairs the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee. From 2002-2008, Sen. Leno served in the California State Assembly, representing the 13th District, which encompasses the eastern portion of San Francisco. Prior to his election to the Assembly, he served for four and a half years on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. During his tenure in the Legislature, Senator Leno has fought for better schools and access to higher education, foster youth, a cleaner and sustainable environment, single-payer universal health care, improved transportation, renewable energy, safer streets and equal rights for all Californians. He authored Senate Bill 572 that designates May 22 as Harvey Milk Day in California. “Opportunities to celebrate those who have championed social justice and equal rights with acclaimed civil rights activist Delores Huerta and Senator Mark Leno are to be cherished. The Harvey Milk Breakfast on May 20 is one of those not to be missed experiences. We expect 650 individuals including 100 high school students from throughout Coachella Valley to be a part of this inspirational community event,” said Ron de Harte, Chairman of the Harvey Milk Diversity Breakfast Coalition. Sponsors for the event as of today include: Grace Helen Spearman Foundation Desert Regional Medical Center Boyd & Lisette Haigler Bud Light CCBC Resort Contour Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery Center David Hood and George Sellers Desert AIDS Project Equality CA Gelson's Geoff Kors and James Williamson Greater Palm Springs Pride Greg D. Barton Hollenbeck Group Human Rights Campaign Morgan Stanley Palm Springs Convention Center Palm Springs Human Rights Commission The LGBT Community Center of the Desert Transgender Community Coalition Western Wind Foundation / Jeremy Hobbs Bloom in the Desert Ministries UCC Borrego Community Health Foundation Contempo Lending Desert Business Association Desert Stonewall Democrats Emerald Kingdom Forest Lawn Ginny Foat Georgie’s Alibi / Azul Hilton Palm Springs Hunters McCallum Theatre ONE PS Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce Palm Springs Gay Men's Chorus Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest SafeSchools Unitarian Universalist Church of the Desert Trans* Community Project STUDENT TABLE SPONSORS Carl Borey and Shann Carr Community Foundation Desert Business Association Desert Gay Tourism Guild (DGTG) Steven Henke Gelson's Grace Helen Spearman Foundation Hunters Reaction Marketing Sarah Millet The LGBT Center of the Desert Tom Stansbury & Larry Fechter Toucans Tiki Lounge Desert Regional Medical Center Western Wind Foundation David Vogel and Larry Fulton MEDIA SPONSORS Coachella Valley Independent, Desert Daily Guide, Gay Desert Guide, NicholasSnow.com, and The Standard Magazine Proceeds benefit Coachella Valley youth through Gay-Straight Alliance organizations and LGBT youth related programs. For more information call 760-416-8711 or email milk@pspride.org.