So glad that Rose and I had the opportunity to meet up with Elaine and her husband Don in our last visit to where we grew up and where we organized. Just learned that our long-time friend, Elaine Schmidt, passed away in Greeley, Colorado.

Difficult to absorb, but especially on these days of Dia de Muertos, remembering her contributions, as far back as the early 1970’s in helping us to develop community centers on the north side of Greeley; organizing WILPF and always advancing multi-racial coalitions that supported our Chicano and excluded communities; holding weekly gatherings at her house that connected international students and faculty/students from all backgrounds with our communities; and always being there over the years in every imaginable organizing effort for peace, justice, equity, and civil/human rights in our communities. As long as I knew Elaine, she was exemplary in using the fullest of her life in the interests of our communities. She will be missed – but all that she stood for is very much alive in all of us who were influenced by her sacrifices, acts of unconditional giving, and her tenacity to construct places that are examples of the kind of just and equitable world that we all have the right to live in.