Matter Daily: Tell us a little about yourselves and why you're involved in this fundraiser.
Alisa Shargorodsky: I've been a resident of Fort Collins for 10 years. I’m a full time student, mother of two, and employed at Green Logic. The reason I'm involved in this fundraiser, specifically on the CARD side, is to further my activism within the community. Rather than merely having distaste for this situation, I’ve felt empowered to do something about it by becoming more deeply involved.
Kristopher Hite: I grew up in rural New York State where people simply accepted industrial pollution as a way of life, and that experience has played a big part in my interest in keeping Colorado's environment in a conserved state. There were literally swimming bans on the shores of Lake Erie where I grew up because of pollution. I watched as tax payers paid hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up the nuclear waste in the small town of West Valley, New York near my home in Chautauqua county. Edward Abbey probably had something to do with it, too. Reading about the Atlas uranium mine in Moab, Utah and seeing with my own eyes the 200 million dollar Superfund site left in its wake of bankruptcy has also spurred me on this path of PREVENTIVE environmental health-care.
Matter Daily: Tell us what we can expect from POW: Protect our Water: A Joint Benefit for Save the Poudre and Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction.
AS/KH: This is not just an event to raise money, though it is a fund raiser. This is a night to create a sense of community—a web of support and mutual understanding. The intention is to boogie down and have a good time, yes, but also to create unlikely community connections and RAISE AWARENESS. We want to bring families from Fort Collins and families from Nunn together on the common ground of a most basic human right—CLEAN WATER. We want to emphasize dialogue and discussion of these issues so that the public's voice can be heard by the committees that decide whether or not to permit the mine or the reservoirs. Not only do we want people to SPEAK OUT about the proposed uranium mine and reservoirs, but we want people to feel empowered to educate themselves in the arguments that will play out in the coming months. We intend to foster a veritable mixing pot of environmental philosophies. The purpose of the gathering is to teach action and promote awareness, and to ask the question: How we can take further action to protect our water?
Matter Daily: What's with the two-headed cow photo shoot?
AS/KH: Comical? Yes. Trickster spin? Yes. The photo shoot is a way for people to feel connected to this issue and, through something funny, while not-so-subliminally, increase awareness about a real risk to the health of people up and down the Front Range.
Matter Daily: Any important details we should know about?
AS/KH: Bring your dancing shoes!
Protect Our Water: A Joint Benefit for Save the Poudre and Coloradoans Against Resource Destruction
Friday, April 30th, 6:30pm – 11:30pm Lincoln Center
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