Rosenberg Fund for Children

Last weekend was terrific for the RFC, Elli and me. It started in Ann Arbor, where Elli and I visited dear old friends who helped organize an RFC reception, and ended in Chicago at an RFC party hosted by Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. We raised almost $10,000 as part of the Fund’s 20th anniversary 20/20/20 program, but I’ll focus on the personal, rather than the financial aspects, of the weekend.

Elli and I lived together and got married while we were undergraduates at the University of Michigan in 1968. It was a time of intense protest and outreach to build movements to end the war in Vietnam and battle racism, sexism and homophobia. We also participated in the first stirrings of the Green movement. Walking past the sites of so many political skirmishes on the campus was an exercise in nostalgia. Connecting that with building the RFC through last weekend’s fundraisers provided a powerful reminder that while times have changed, many of the same struggles continue.

Sitting on the same bench on which I’d sat over 40 years earlier at countless rallies on the Michigan “diag,” I thought about how many generations of students had come and gone since I went to Michigan. I felt even more intensely that if it is going to take decades to transform our society into one that is more just, equitable and sustainable, we must build and support child-oriented institutions whose charge is the transmission of progressive values from one generation to the next.

Reliving what happened over 40 years ago in Ann Arbor fueled my multigenerational musings. In Chicago, I’d only be looking back to 1990, but that too had generational implications. We arrived early on Sunday afternoon, after a 4-hour drive through Michigan’s rolling farm country and Northern Indiana’s industrial wasteland. The reception at Bill and Bernardine’s was the 14th event in the RFC’s series of 20 events in 20 cities over a 20-month period to celebrate the RFC’s 20th anniversary. This one, however, was special because it took place almost exactly 20 years to the day after the first one they hosted in May of 1990.

That May, I was working at the Massachusetts Appeals Court. My job would not end until that August, but I was already spending my evenings and weekends gathering support for a project I called The Rosenberg Fund for Children. I’d begun spreading the word among the circles of people who might benefit from the fund and this had brought me into contact with Bill and Bernardine. They agreed to host a reception at their home in the Hyde Park section of Chicago to test of my ability to raise funds for this new project. So I hopped on a plane to spend the weekend prospecting.

For the first time I told the story of what happened to me as a child, how the progressive community helped me to survive, and that now I was starting a project so our community could help children today who were enduring similar nightmares. I received an enthusiastic response, but I had special help. Bill and Bernardine were raising Chesa Boudin, the 9-year-old son of political prisoners. Chesa sat at my feet as I spoke. When I finished, he piped up loudly: “Boy, his life was just like mine, only worse!”

We had an even bigger group and raised a lot more money at Bill and Bernardine’s last Sunday. I told my story once again and this time was able to report on all our progress over the past 20 years. The response was excellent, but Chesa wasn’t there this time. Now he’s almost 30, is finishing law school and working for the ACLU.

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We began planning for the RFC’s 20th anniversary over two years ago. We’d produced several large-scale dramatic readings interspersed with music to mark prior milestones such as the 40th and 50th anniversary of my parents’ execution or the RFC’s 10th anniversary, but this time we wanted to do something different. Rather than one big event on or near the anniversary date (September 4th, 2010), we decided to hold 20 events, in 20 cities, over 20 months (our 20/20/20 program). Staging a large number of modest events takes more effort than holding a single big one, but we wanted to interact with as many members of our community as possible. When you bring together thousands, you see lots of people, but get to talk meaningfully with almost none of them. We also wanted to involve dozens of volunteers in our work to strengthen our connections with our constituency.

At first we weren’t sure that we’d find 20 venues and small groups of people in so many cities who’d take on the task of hosting an RFC reception. Over 21 months, however, starting in September, 2009 and wrapping up 10 days ago, we held 26 events across 16 states. Most of these affairs were house parties attended by several dozen supporters, but a few were larger public events, including our local “Gala” in Northampton, MA that attracted a crowd of over 250.

I attended every occasion. My daughter Jenn, who will succeed me as Executive Director in a couple of years, joined me at more than half of them; my wife, Elli, attended eight; our Public Relations Coordinator, Amber, joined us at a few; and a number of RFC Board members and current and former beneficiaries participated in at least one. In all, we got to thank personally more than a thousand of our supporters and gained close to 400 new donors for our cause.

After expenses were subtracted, we raised over $62,000 more for our beneficiaries. This is particularly gratifying during a time of economic contraction and on-going repression. The current economic and political climate has made things more difficult for us because the need for our aid grew just when our donor’s ability to contribute shrank. The funds raised from all these events helped fill this breach, and so, they could not have come at a more opportune time. In fact, after cutting our granting budget from $400,000 in 2008 to $350,000 in 2009, we were able to increase the budget to $360,000 in 2010 and expect our granting total to top $370,000 this year. The RFC staff, Board and beneficiaries extend a huge collective thank you to everyone who helped with these events or contributed at them for making this possible.

Finally, I extend a special thank you to our Public Relations Coordinator, Amber Black, who was the principle in-house organizer of all of these programs. Everyone who worked with her can attest to her effectiveness and efficiency; we couldn’t have done it without her.

PS Although we’ve concluded the 20/20/20 program, we’re lining up more parties in the fall. We’re already planning receptions in Portland, OR and suburban Philadelphia and hope to arrange one or two more in places we missed during our anniversary extravaganza.