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National activism tour comes to the San Joaquin County and stops at Pacific Five students from The University of the Pacific’s Mentor Seminar II class hosted the national Liberty for All Tour Sunday evening in Pacific’s Sky Box.
They have spent the past semester volunteering for P.F.L.A.G. (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) here in Stockton. The organizer of the event, and the group’s adviser Kathy Schick of A.C.L.U. helped the students put on the event. Students Kelsey Lynch, Evan Spencer, Josephine Trinh, Jesse Chavarria, and Vincent Lu helped The Liberty for All Tour to make one of many Northern California stops this week right here in Stockton. Many different civil rights activist organizations were in attendance, including: The American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.) of Stanislaus County and San Joaquin County, EQ|CA or Equality for California, Peace and Justice Network of San Joaquin County, The Stanislaus Pride Center, The Gay Straight Alliance Network, and the Stockton Branch of Planned Parenthood. The Liberty for All Tour also had representatives for the international activist organization, Amnesty International. The Liberty for All Tour is traveling throughout the U.S. with the intention to unite different activist groups in counties all over the country. The Pacific event was the 17th event of 19 that week. The Tour is trying to “create coalitions, one visit at a time.” All of the different groups present had an opportunity to communicate with each other and learn about the diverse activist groups in the area. Molly McKay, the Field Director of EQ|CA, explained that during this time in history when many activist groups are coming under fire and facing upsetting civil rights legislation it is time to “work smarter and not harder.” McKay explained that The Tour will help people to create “political relations, coalitions and friendships, and will allow people the opportunity to come together to see what all organizations can do to together.” Coordinator of the Gay Straight Alliance Network, Lai-San Seto explained that her reason for participating in The Tour is, “training and empowering the next generation of activists to create a more fair and just world AND get rid of homophobia.” Planned Parenthood’s representative, Theodros Gashaw was there to “fight against Prop 73 and get the government out of women’s uteruses” because “the government needs to respect reproductive rights.”
Every guest had the opportunity to introduce themselves, their organization, and then give the number of years they have been an activist. The event’s guides took note of everyone’s information and created a roster to give to everyone who attended the event. After adding up everyone’s years of activism it was found that there were 305 years of activism in the room, and there were not more than 50 people in attendance. The tally with every city the tour had visited came out to 8,883 hours total. 
Upon hearing this result, Liberty for All Tour coordinator Molly McKay exclaimed, “we are so excited to see how close we are getting to 10,000 hours of service! It’s amazing!” The student hosts were also very happy with the event. Their teacher, Bett Schumacher attended and seemed proud of the students’ work. Freshman Evan Spencer said, “I think the event was well planned and well organized-it came together.” Sophomore Kelsey Lynch said, “I think it was a good turn-out but I wish more students had attended.”
While the event was very well attended by activist organizations, there were very few students in attendance. This could have been due to the odd time of the event, a Sunday night, or the slightly hard-to-reach venue. The Sky Box served as a perfect space, but was a bit out of the way due to the rain that evening. Josephine Trinh said, “I am glad I had this opportunity because I learned a lot and it will help me with my policy paper. It is much easier to talk to someone who knows about an issue than it is to research it.” Students in Mentor Seminar II are required to turn in a policy paper at the end of the semester that proposes a change in government policy. These students really seemed to go beyond the call of duty and helped to host a very successful and well-run event.
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Great article and good photos. Is there more? 
This was a terrific event. Glad that our community organizations were able to connect with students at UOP. I believe the University has huge potential to facilitate multicultural community events like this. Great job and thank you for everything Kelsey, Evan, Josephine, Jesse, and Vincent! 
