Fruita for Equality is a collaboration to support equality, inclusivity, and diversity through meaningful conversations and action in the community.
August 2021
Committee sets goals for the next year
The Fruita for Equality committee met to discuss the group’s structure and agreed on a process for committee members to propose projects and events. The committee also determined the goals that it will focus on for the coming year. The goals are:

  • We will break down walls, promote civil discourse, and build common ground within our community.

  • We will build awareness of Fruita for Equality and our mission within the community, and participate in community events.

  • We will develop skills for facilitation, active listening, public speaking, and common-ground building, and will practice these skills.
September committee meeting agenda
Fruita for Equality's September meeting is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 20, in the Fruita Branch Library's IdeaLab or virtually via the video conferencing platform Zoom.

September's agenda:
  • Skill development - facilitation, active listening, public speaking, common-ground building
  • Project pitches
  • Pumpkin carving event
  • Community potlucks
  • Develop Fruita for Equality handouts/informational packets
  • Select first project, establish responsibilities and timeline
Mesa County Libraries offer
Mirrors and Windows Reading Experience
Participate in the Mirrors and Windows Reading Experience to explore the stories of our diverse world.

Discovering the experiences of others will help you connect with your neighbors in Mesa County.

Complete this reading experience by earning badges. For each badge, you will select and explore a title, reflect and/or share how the materials you chose sit with you. Each badge you earn will allow you to discover new stories or connect with stories similar to your own.
Book/Media Recommendations
Children’s Chapter Book Recommendation - The Benefits of Being an Octopus by Ann Braden
Seventh-grader Zoey Albro focuses on caring for three younger siblings and avoiding rich classmates at school until her fascination with octopuses gets her on the debate team and she begins to speak out.
It's Holy Week in the small town of Las Penas, New Mexico, and 33-year-old unemployed Amadeo Padilla has been given the part of Jesus in the Good Friday procession. He is preparing feverishly for this role when his 15-year-old daughter Angel shows up pregnant on his doorstep and disrupts his plans. Their reunion sets her own life down a startling path.

Vivid, tender, darkly funny, and beautifully rendered, "The Five Wounds" spans the baby's first year as five generations of the Padilla family converge: Amadeo's mother, Yolanda, reeling from a recent discovery; Angel's mother, whom Angel isn't speaking to; and disapproving Tío Tíve, keeper of the family's history. In the absorbing, realist tradition of Elizabeth Strout and Jonathan Franzen, Kirstin Valdez Quade conjures characters that will linger long after the final page, bringing to life their struggles to parent children they may not be equipped to save.
--Description provided by publisher
Have a question about Fruita for Equality?
Contact fruitaforequality@gmail.com for more information.
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