News about KDNA, Novela Health Education,
and the Northwest Communities Education Center
Community Technology Center Funded - crossing the digital
divide
Strengthening Community During Difficult Times
- a new health care partenership with YVFWC and Sound Partners
NTIA funds equipment replacement with Public Telecommunications
Facilities Program Grant
Swervin' and Curvin' raises money for KDNA
Swervin' and Curvin'
Every year since 1994, Radio KDNA has received funds generated by Swervin'
and Curvin', an event held in the Yakima Valley. Organized by Chuck Perov
of Seattle, this is a winery tour for bicycling enthusiasts usually held
in late September. The group is mostly from the Puget Sound area, although
in years past participants have come from as far away as Wisconsin, North
Carolina, and Massachusetts.
The ride first took place in 1990 as a casual weekend outing among friends.
Within a few years, however, participants expressed a desire to reach
out and support the local community - specifically farmworkers. A few
inquiries and conversations later, Swervin' and Curvin' began a partnership
with KDNA, donating all proceeds from the event to the station. The first
few years produced modest donations; more recently, the figure has gone
as high as $3,000. In addition, riders have donated computers, clothing,
bedding, and other needed items to the station for both instructional
use and distribution to needy farmworkers.
Riders feel that they are a part of the station's family, and they look
forward to the wonderful buffet dinner served up by station personnel
and friends on Saturday night each year. This year's ride took place the
weekend of September 27, 2003, and was the most heavily attended yet with
almost 80 adult riders and numerous friends. On Saturday night, the riders
presented a donation of over $4,000 to KDNA, and the dinner donations
added another healthy amount to the total. To all the cycling and wine
enthusiasts who joined us, we give our sincere thanks!
September 2003
Post Office releases stamp honoring Cesar Chavez
The memory of Cesar Chavez continues to grow. Hundreds of schools, buildings
and parks are named after the labor leader. In some states, his birthday
is an official holiday. And today, on the 10th anniversary of his death,
the U.S. Postal Service will issue a stamp in his honor
Click
here for story in San Jose Mercury News
April 24, 2003
Community Technology Center Funded
The University of Washington's Office of Educational Partnerships and
Learning Technologies and its partners in Eastern Washington - Northwest
Communities Education Center and Horizons Inc. - have been awarded a $576,331
grant from the U.S. Department of Education to create two community technology
centers in Granger and Sunnyside.
These technology centers are designed to help farm workers and other
low-income individuals to improve their English literacy, to become fluent
in the uses of information technology, and to provide access to a wide-array
of education resources. Both centers will have video conferencing capabilities
to communicate with and access resources at the University of Washington
and beyond. The proposal was one of 53 selected from a pool of 1,400 applicants.
"Farm working families in our area will now have a means to access
information that will facilitate receiving services from such state agencies
as the Department of Social & Health Services and Job Service Centers.
They will have at their fingertips an educational service that will help
them learn and appreciate the convenience of the computer systems. Many
will also be able to keep up with the computer skills that their children
are learning at school," said Ricardo R. Garcia, Executive Director
of Northwest Communities Education Center.
Read
full press release
Read
more in Yakima Herald-Republic, 10/23/2002
What's
a "community technology center"?
October 10, 2002
Strengthening Community During Difficult
Times
Granger, WA, 2002
The people of Yakima Valley, a community of Spanish-speaking farmworkers,
warehouse workers and immigrants, face a number of economic and social
hurdles. These have been aggravated by a weakened agricultural economy
brought on by a drought and new, stricter changes to immigration policies
introduced by the Department of Justice after the tragic events of September
11th.
Radio KDNA and the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (YVFWC) will lead
an effort to ease the ramifications of these events on their community
by launching a mental health education campaign that integrates live call-in
programs with a broad base of outreach activities.
Read
more at Sound Partners for Community Health
KDNA's broadcast signal will be improved, and broken
equipment replaced as a result of a substantial facilities grant:
The National Telecommunications and Information Administration as awarded
a Public Telecommunications Facilties Program grant of $96,050 to KDNA
for the purchase of an antenna, transmission line, and studio equipment.
KDNA will need to raise matching funds of $32,017.
October 10, 2002
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