MVCAN KUDOS & ACHIEVEMENTS 2016-2021

Recognizing Four+ Years of Activism and Impact!

Our History:

In December 2016, when we held our first community meetings at the Mill Valley Community Center and the Scott Valley Clubhouse, we had little idea what would grow out of our first inchoate attempts to make things happen after Trump’s election. With the new Indivisible Guide (then just a few days old) as our inspiration, our founders formed MVCAN, and soon many like-minded, energetic, and committed activists joined us to create the changes we wanted to see.

With community input, we’ve grown steadily through more than four years to develop a great breadth of purpose and meaningful accomplishments. Most importantly, we are grateful to the many trained and accomplished organizers and the hundreds of activists who found a home at MVCAN. Every one of them is a volunteer.

Together, we converted our powerful opposition to anti-democratic trends into tangible actions - ranging from peaceful protest and issue advocacy to mass voter registration and mobilization. One of our guiding principles is conveyed in our name - We like to say “There’s a reason we call it the Mill Valley Community ‘ACTION’ Network!”

Now, having accomplished two of our primary objectives of DUMPING TRUMP AND WINNING BACK THE SENATE (and as we organize in 2021 and beyond), we thought we’d do a bit of a retrospective. Our goal is to collect our accomplishments in one place and express our appreciation to all those who have contributed mightily along the way. We urge you to partake of the entire document - it’s worth the read! Thanks to those who contributed content to this long and rich report. Note that, though we tried to include everyone and everything, we apologize in advance for anything we have overlooked. Readers, we urge you to participate by emailing info@mvcan.org about those whom you wish to recognize for their contributions.

WHAT WE DID AND WHO WE WANT TO THANK!

1. MVCAN FOUNDERS AND CORE TEAM  

2. CIVIL RIGHTS / IMMIGRATION TEAM

3. HEALTH CARE TEAM

4. ECO TEAM

5. WOMEN’S RIGHTS TEAM

6. ISSUE ADVOCACY TEAM

7. ELECTORAL TEAM plus Working Groups: Phone Banking, Canvassing, Postcarding, Texting, Friend-2-Friend Voter Engagement & Activist Trainings

8. AIRLIFT - MVCAN’S SISTER PROJECT FOR GRASSROOTS FUNDRAISING

9. DUMP TRUMP TEAM

10. MVCAN COMMUNICATIONS - MONTHLY MEETINGS, NEWSLETTER, EDUCATION AND TRAINING

11. MVCAN COMMUNITY PARTNERS AND DONORS

12. SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS

13. ADD YOUR THOUGHTS: PLEASE CONTRIBUTE YOUR OWN MVCAN MEMORIES AND SHOUT-OUTS!

14. THANKS TO ALL WHO MADE THIS RETROSPECTIVE POSSIBLE

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CORE TEAM MEMBERS AND FOUNDERS                                  

MVCAN Founders:

Eileen Fisher, June Cooperman, Bernard Catalinotto, Danny Altman, Suz Lipman

Current Core Members:                                                                    

Eileen Fisher, June Cooperman, Bernard Catalinotto, Rebecca Brackman

Core Team Mission

The Core Team functions as the nerve center of MVCAN, working to provide leadership at multiple levels and to help define our group’s goals, strategies, and tactics. We also support and report back on the amazing work of the MVCAN Teams. The Core initiates training and actions for our members, produces MVCAN-wide communications and represents MVCAN to outside partners and elected officials in order to build progressive power in our community. We are proud to have built our base at the four-year mark to more than 1,400 local residents from all over Marin.

LEADERS past and present:

Lisa  Scarsella, Diane Goldman, Peter Graumann and Barbara Rowe

For more than four years with steady, dedicated leadership and committed members, the Civil Rights/Immigration Team has promoted local and regional civil rights and justice for immigrants by working independently and in coalition with partner organizations on a range of issues.

CIVIL RIGHTS/ IMMIGRATION TOP ACTIONS - 2016-2020:

• Promoted local civil rights in rallies and marches: Co-sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations in Marin City. Supported Golden Gate Village redevelopment efforts. Participated in Black Lives Matter marches and rallies, Co-hosted “Love Lives in Marin” event and Women’s Marches (2017-2020). Joined inspiring marches with Moms Demand Action for gun safety across Golden Gate Bridge in 2017/2018.

  

  Advocated for immigration rights in Marin: Participated in Truth Act Forums to hold the Marin County Sheriff accountable for Civil Rights violations. Provided drivers to help immigrants get to appointments. Made monetary donations to Covid Relief for Canal families (as well as diapers, baby wipes & gift cards) and provided rental support for Canal families. Participated as Census volunteers. Monitored ICE raids with Rapid Response Network. Hosted Lucia Martel-Dow, immigration law expert from the Canal Alliance, as a featured speaker at a MVCAN monthly meeting.

LEADERS past and present:

Lisa Ristorucci (founder), Marilyn Price,  Elspeth Martin, Jenny Tomkins

For more than four years the Eco Team has effectively promoted environmentalism on the local, state and national levels. The Eco Team frequently works in coalition with many active local environmental groups, including Sustainable Mill Valley.

ECO TEAM TOP ACTIONS 2016- 2020:

• Published Eco Newsletter: This ongoing, weekly newsletter covers environmental actions, local activities and climate-related news stories for environmental activists (2017- 2020). We have 162 members that received our weekly action items. Our newsletter has an enthusiastic following, receives favorable comments and shares action items with other groups.

• Petitioned for MCE Deep Green (100% renewable energy):                         Successfully petitioned the Mill Valley Council to sign up for MCE Deep Green for their city energy use in 2017 and petitioned the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin to sign up in 2018.

• Co-organized Earth Day Event, Climate March, and Memorial Day parades: Co-organized Earth  Day event  at Tam  High with Fabrice Florin and Green Change,  featuring over 20 local environmental organizations, with music and activities (2018). Co-organized Climate March in San Rafael (2017). Worked with Fabrice Florin, creator of the fantastic Eco float, to march in the Mill Valley Memorial Day parade.

  

• Successfully advocated for Climate Emergency Resolutions:  Supported organizations working to get Climate Emergency Resolutions passed by all Marin County cities. Four have passed to date (2020).  

  
  

  
  

ECO TEAM ACTIVISTS - Sherri Patterson, Michael Reppy, Maeve Burke, Bob Harlow, Grace Severson, Laurie Riley, Jay Gustafson, Liz Schumacher, Denise Meehan, Joanne Bagan, Alicia Forrester, Daisy Carlson, Julie Carlson, Mary Cosgrove, Carol                Korenbrot, Rebecca Brackman, Fabrice Florin

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WOMEN'S RIGHTS TEAM

LEADERS/ACTIVISTS past and present:  

Leigh Ann Townsend, Kate Barrengos, JZ Jones, Barbara Solomon

The Women’s Rights team has worked on a broad and significant set of events and women’s issues since their 2016 founding.

TOP ACTIONS 2016- 2020:

• Organized MVCAN participation in three annual Women’s Marches:  We organized busses for more than 150 Marinites to the San Francisco March in 2017. That's a lot of pink hats!

  

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  Lobbied for CA state law protecting women’s rights: Advocated for AB 41 Rape Kit Testing backlog, which is now law. Also, supported “The Sexual Assualt Victim’s DNA Bill of RIghts,” which encourages police to perform DNA testing of rape kit evidence in a timely manner. We worked on this issue with prominent attorney and DA candidate Anna Pletcher.

• Campaigned for Kimberly Ellis in the CA DEM Party Chair campaign:  Fundraised with in-kind and financial donations from individuals and local businesses, including the Donna Seager Gallery. Although Kimberly Ellis barely missed winning the Chair position, she is currently the San Francisco Director of the Department on the Status of Women. Our work helped bring her into the spotlight.

  

  
  

  
  

  Fundraised and donated over $5,000 for women’s causes: We raised funds for both the Women’s Health and Wellness Center in Marin City (new birthing rooms) and for a Washington State (Seattle area) clinic for women who could not afford transporation to access abortion services.  
  

• Partnered with local NARAL leaders: We participated in canvassing, postcarding, op-ed writing (Barbara Solomon) and fundraising.
  

WOMEN'S TEAM ACTIVISTS:

Leigh Ann Townsend, Kate Barrengos, Elyse Foster, Charlene Frischer, Veronica Derrick, Sally Hagstrom, Jacqueline Zimmer, Barbara Solomon, Ann Christensen, Amy Paulenich, Kathryn Phillips, Kelly Rowell, Kate McCormick.  

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ISSUE ADVOCACY TEAM for CALIFORNIA LAWS

LEADER: Larry Litvak

Throughout much of 2019, the MVCAN Issue Advocacy Team enthusiastically participated in research, lobbying and "call-in week” for California legislature bills.

• Of the six bills for which we called in September, five of them passed! These bills included eliminating private prisons, authorizing public banks, requiring funder disclosure on ballot petitions, reducing mandatory sentencing, and establishing fair districting for county supervisorial districts. Our Marin legislators voted the right way on all these bills!  

• Lobbying our two state legislators, Mike McGuire and Marc Levine, on key state bills. In addition to “Call In Week,” the MVCAN Issue Advocacy team successfully undertook lobbying efforts, working along with other Indivisible groups in Marin and statewide.

ISSUE ADVOCACY TEAM ACTIVISTS:
Leigh Ann Townsend and Gary Appel (through in-person meetings with McGuire and Levine). Other team members included Dan Krimm, Barbara Solomon, Carol Korenbrot, Elyse Foster, Carol Zimmerman and Corrie Sias.  

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ELECTORAL & VOTER REGISTRATION TEAM 2017- 2021

Electoral Task Force for Recruiting Volunteers - Phone Banking - Canvassing - Texting - Postcarding -
Friend-to-Friend - Voter Engagement Training  

LEADERS:

Electoral & Voter Registration Team  

Susan Bolle and Larry Litvak

Over the past 4 years our Electoral Team made almost a million calls - - sent millions of texts - sent hundreds of thousands of postcards - and canvassed in five states to win absolutely critical victories, regaining control of the Presidency, the House and the Senate!

We’d like to thank our dedicated volunteers, including our amazing Democracy Action Marin leaders and coaches, who spent so many hours over the past 4 plus years calling and texting voters all over the country.Your resilience and determination are truly admirable!

When the pandemic hit, we moved people from voting in-person to voting-by-mail. Your tireless work during GOTV in 2020 talking to voters who might not have voted otherwise was responsible for the margin of victory in states all over the country--those thousands of votes that took us over the top in 2020        in MI, WI, PA, NV, AZ, GA, and CO.

ELECTORAL TEAM’S MOST AMAZING VICTORIES!

2017 VIRGINIA STATE ELECTIONS:
Won Governor, Lt. Governor, Attorney General and 15 seats in Virginia House of Delegates; Dems and Republicans were then tied in the Virginia House.

Alabama Senate: Doug Jones won Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions.

2018 MIDTERMS: THE BLUE WAVE

Won 2 Senate Seats: NV (Catherine Cortez Masto) and AZ (Kyrsten Sinema)

Won 41 seats in the House to take the majority. We focused on the 7 priority congressional seats in California to win The Blue Wave!

2019: VIRGINIA AND KENTUCKY

Won the Virginia State Senate & House for the first time since 1944! Democrats took full control of the VA State government, increasing Democratic state trifectas from 6 in 2016 to 15 in 2020.

Kentucky: Won Governor (Andy Beshear)

2020: PRESIDENCY - GENERAL ELECTION

General Election

AZ: Mark Kelly Senate

CO: John Hickenlooper Senate

Trump loses decisively: President Biden & VP Harris!

2021: DEMOCRATS ACHIEVE FULL CONTROL OF CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENCY!

Won both Senate seats in the Georgia Senate run-off!

KUDOS TO ELECTORAL TEAM’S WORKING GROUPS!
Kudos to the Task force, Phone Banking, Canvassing, Texting, Postcarding, Friend-to-Friend, Voter Engagement, and Activist Training Teams!

By working synergistically, all of the working groups that comprised the Electoral Team evolved effective, flexible strategies and through hard work and dedication contributed to the tremendous political changes we’ve seen since 2016.

ELECTORAL: TASK FORCE FOR RECRUITING VOLUNTEERS 2018-2020

To address the massive challenges of the 2018 midterm elections, the Electoral Team set up the highly organized “Electoral Task Force.” We started with a large kick-off event at the Mill Valley Clubhouse in August 2018. The “Electoral Task Force” was also re-energized for the November 2020 elections.

The Electoral Task Force recruited MVCAN members to participate in our voter outreach activities. The Task Force members made hundreds of telephone calls to our members and successfully recruited several hundred activists in both years.

ELECTORAL CYCLE TASK FORCE ACTIVISTS 2018- 2021:

Bill Jansen, Gary Appel, Ruthanne Appel, Berta McDonnell, Carol Zimmerman, Frank Leidman, Eileen Fisher, Bob Haar, Bernard Catalinotto, Elise, Foster, Danny Altman, Lorrie Goldin, Lynda Cornejo, Leigh Ann Townsend, Lisa Barger, Faybeth Diamond, Berta McDonald, Susan Gertman, Jenny Tomkins, Diane Goldman, Margaret Partlow, Alison Whittaker, Lizzy Hershey, Marilyn Anderson, Burr Leonard and Rebecca Brackman.  

ELECTORAL: PHONE BANKING

Our leaders and coaches dedicated thousands of hours of hard work over the past 4 years to make our phone banks a powerhouse of organization and productivity. We forged a community of volunteers who felt welcomed and empowered, as well as creating effective training for new phone bankers.

Over the years we have partnered with the local powerhouse Democracy Action Marin and also with Sister District Marin and Reclaim Our Vote to create a formidable phone banking coalition.

Phone Banking History:

After the loss of the 2016 Presidential election, Democrats were out in the wilderness with no power at the federal or state level!

Beginning in December 2016 we began calling voters in red states for the Special State House and Congressional elections (resulting from Trump Cabinet appointees) and slowly narrowed the loss margins.

Late in 2017 we called in a successful effort to save the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA) in partnership with the MVCAN Healthcare Team.

We revved up our activities tremendously for the 2018 midterm elections. By summer 2018, we had increased phone banks to 2 per week, and by October were holding 3 phone banks per week. In the final week before the November election we led all-day phone banks with 100 volunteers at each shift, capped off with a big celebration on Election Night!

When the Pandemic hit in March 2020, we seamlessly transitioned to Zoom phone banks and were able to triple our phone bank capacity.

In 2020 our reputation reached the national level during the Presidential election when the Biden campaign leaders sought us out to be the Marin “Staging Location.” As a result, we attracted national participation (from Hawaii to Maine) in our phone banks. We were also assigned special strategic assignments for urgent needs, e.g., to recruit canvassers in North Carolina or to boost Early Voting in specific precincts.

In 2021 we had 60 days to win the Georgia Senate Run-Offs. We worked closely with the Warnock and Ossoff Campaigns plus the Georgia Dems to help flip the Senate!

PHONE BANK LEADERSHIP TEAM

Marti Cermak, Faybeth Diamond, Ruth Jaeger, Ed Lai, Amy Likover, Berta McDonnell, Margaret Partlow, Celeste Perry, Ruthanne Ranz Appel, Corrie Sias, Leigh Ann Townsend

COACHING TEAM

Allison Delman, Anne Kopp, Barb Killey, Bill Jansen, Bruce Imai, Carla Dingillo, Gail Lester, Helen Rosen, Janet Wiscombe, Jean Bolte, Jan O’Brien, Jeanne Imai, John Mix, Sue Saunders, Lisa Barger, Lisa Scarsella, Lynda Cornejo, Lynda Sheridan, Lorrie Goldin

HIGHLIGHTS:

MOST FREQUENT PHONE BANKERS: Ruth Falk, Ruth Pratt, Barbara Solomon, Marilyn Anderson, Jim Small, Dottie & Jim Mitchell, Ellen Gumbiner (leaders and coaches listed above) and kudos to the astounding number of over 1,000 volunteers who phone banked through the 4 years.

PHONE BANKING MVP AWARDS:

Ginna Fleming and Lisa Scarsella

GENEROUS SUPPORTERS:

In 2017 Bob Haar began a postcard campaign with friends from his Terra Linda Bridge Club who were appalled by Trump. They told their friends and family and soon there were 25 postcarders. They sent 900 cards to a district in southern CA that was ultimately won by 500 votes.

Bob was delivering the cards and the lists and scripts to each person individually. As the group grew, he realized he could no longer manage deliveries, and then he had a logistics breakthrough. He began having folks get their own postcards. He copied and pasted scripts and lists from a spreadsheet and emailed volunteers. That revolutionized growth capacity. By November 2019, he had 300 volunteers and enlisted a friend to help manage new volunteers.

Reclaim our Vote’s extensive voter list consisted primarily of disenfranchised voters of color. Exponential growth continued and by November 2020, Bob had 15 Team Leaders, including a leader from MVCAN, Gary Appel. Each Team managed 300 postcard writers for a grand total of 4,500 writers!

By the end the team churned out:        

• 620,000 postcards in the General Election.

• 230,000 postcards in 3 weeks for Georgia run-offs.

• 15% of all Reclaim Our Votes national totals.

Many thanks to all MVCAN postcarders and for the many active carders still sending by the 10s of thousands in 2021!

ELECTORAL: FRIEND-TO-FRIEND VOTER OUTREACH

LEADER: Larry Litvak

In our Friend-to-Friend program, we helped volunteers reach out to five (or more) people they knew in states that mattered. We asked them to commit to making sure at least three people they knew voted in November 2020. Research has established that the most powerful reminder to vote is a reminder from someone you know.

TOP ACTIONS: 2020

• Created a Friend-to-Friend webpage - Created a webpage where people could learn the steps involved in recruiting individuals they knew in battleground states, reaching out to three people in their communities to make sure they voted.

• Conducted workshops - Presented several live, online workshops for people who wanted to learn how to do Friend-to-Friend outreach (with Susan Bolle’s assistance).

• Explained Friend-to-Friend at monthly meeting - Oriented MVCAN meeting attendees on how to do Friend-to-Friend.

FRIEND-TO-FRIEND ACTIVISTS:
Penny Hicks, Steve Senk, Lorrie Goldin, Chuck Jones, Kathi Burke, Tina Chase, Adam Goldberg, Margaret Fisher, Betty and Dennis Drake, Annie Alpers, Alan Saltzman, Lynda Sheridan, Susan Bolle.

ELECTORAL: VOTER ENGAGEMENT TRAINING

MVCAN NEWSLETTER TEAM - “The Wag”

LEADERS past and present:

Founder and inspiration: Suz Lipman  

Current Editorial staff: June Cooperman, Annie Cooperman, Eileen Fisher  

Through four years, we have regularly published our newsletter (“The Wag”) the indispensable report for staying current on all things MVCAN. The editors work every issue to produce a Wag that is tightly edited, action focused, fun to read and with great pics!

Our newsletter keeps members informed of what is going on, essential dates and events of importance to each of our areas of engagement: Eco, Civil Rights/Immigration, Electoral, AIRLIFT, etc. The Newsletter Team covers the high-level view so that even members who miss meetings can get the big picture and a curated list of essential activities and offerings.

TOP ACTIONS 016- 2021:

• Kept up the newsletter’s robust circulation - maintained and continued to add to a large 1,400 distribution list.

• Maintained a huge “open rate” ranging from 28% to 45% - unheard of for organizational newsletters, which often have single digit open rates. Thank you to our loyal readers!

• Created a newsletter archive - documenting MVCAN’s history and evolution.

To access our MVCAN newsletter go to mvcan.org. Also, don’t forget to join our facebook group at “Mill Valley Community Action Network” which has 1200 members!

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MVCAN COMMUNITY PARTNERS and
MVCAN DONORS

Effective activism is often about building coalitions. We want to express our appreciation for our fantastic community partners who have joined with us in fighting for our many, many common goals. We received support and guidance from them and also lent our energies to help our allied groups. Together, there have been so many synergies over the years that MVCAN’s total impact has been vastly enhanced in more ways than we can count.

LOCAL PARTNERS: Democracy Action Marin, Indivisible Marin, Indivisible Sausalito, Swing Left Marin, Marin Organizing Committee (MOC), Sister District Marin, Marin Moms Demand Action & Helen Rosen, Standing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) Marin, Marin Leaders Network, Canal Alliance, Marin City MLK Coalition, Patty Hoyt & Novato Stands United, Marin Democratic Party & Pat Johnstone, Rapid Response Marin, Sustainable Mill Valley, Marin Racial Justice Forum,   Green Change, Marin Anti-racist Coalition, Play Marin!, ACLU Marin, Marin Interfaith Council, Organizers Lucy Litvak and Evan Bissell, NARAL, Golden Gate Village Residents’ Council, Resistance/Movement Labs & Yoni Landau, NorCalBlue, Rock the Congress, 350 Marin, Mill Valley Force for Racial Equity and Empowerment (MVFREE) and others.

NATIONAL/REGIONAL PARTNERS:

Movement Voter Project, Indivisible National, Reclaim Our Vote, MOVE ON, Biden/Harris Campaign, Tracy Democratic Party, Field Team 6 (AZ), Netroots Nation, Next Gen America, Working America, Courage Campaign CA

KUDOS TO OUR MVCAN DONORS!

We want to thank all of our MVCAN donors, both those who make monthly donations and those who have made one-time donations. As an all volunteer org we run our budget lean. Nonetheless, your generous support has enabled this organization to rent rooms to hold meetings, to offer honorariums and travel expenses to some of our Monthly Meeting Special Speakers, to print flyers and posters, and to make timely donations to allied community groups (e.g., Canal Alliance, Marin City Health Services, Marin Organizing Committee...) Having this ongoing support for MVCAN activities has been wonderful and frees up MVCAN leadership to focus on actions instead of fundraising.

AND OUR GENEROUS SUPPORTERS: Offices of Jim and Larie Flaherty, Minuteman Press, Donna Seager Gallery, Throckmorton Theater, Driver’s Market, Good Earth Market

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SPECIAL AWARDS AND SHOUT-OUTS

SPECIAL RECOGNITION AWARDS--We Couldn’t Have Done It Without You!

Chris Lydon, Carol Korenbrot

GREAT VISION and DEDICATION AWARD

Danny Altman and Awesome Team for Airlift

ADDED VALUE AWARD

Larie and Jim Flaherty for generous use of their Sausalito offices for Phone Banking

Annie Cooperman, co-editor of the MVCAN newsletter, for putting in many hours on each edition for content, images, formatting, and editing.

“COMMUNITY PARTNER SUPREME” AWARD

Democracy Action Marin

“MOST SURPRISING VICTORIES” AWARD

Virginia Tsunami Sweep 2017

Doug Jones Alabama US Senator 2017

Georgia US Senate Victories 2021

“SCHOLAR IN RESIDENCE” AWARD 2016 - 2021

Larry Litvak

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ADD YOUR OWN MVCAN
MEMORIES & SHOUT OUTS!

Please help us document our MVCAN history and archives by writing to us at info@mvcan with your comments and memories or missing shout outs.

For example, complete:

The most memorable MVCAN experience(s) I had was_______.

Or

The person most inspiring for me in MVCAN is/was________.

Send to info@mvcan.org And please let us know if we can quote you.

CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS FOR MVCAN KUDOS 4-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE

Thank you to the MVCAN leaders who contributed content to this special edition of the newsletter by adding facts and names to the 50+ pages!:

Larry Litvak, Barbara Rowe, Elyse Foster, Marilyn Price, Jenny Tompkins, Bob Haar, Carol Korenbrot, Susan Bolle, Corrie Sias, Bernard Catalinotto, Leigh Ann Townsend, Susan Gertman, Danny Altman, Diane Goldman, Peter Graumann

THANK YOU TO OUR READERS AND SUPPORTERS AS WE CONTINUE TO...

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NEW TO MVCAN?

Visit MVCAN.org to learn about the organization and strategies, join a team, read past MVCAN newsletters, and gain helpful Resistance tools.

WANT TO VOLUNTEER YOUR SKILLS OR TALENTS?

Numerous positions and jobs are available – one-time or ongoing.  Contact volunteer@mvcan.org.

Thank you for all you do!
– June, Bernard, Eileen, Rebecca, and everyone at MVCAN

MVCAN News brought to you by June, Annie and Eileen