By Staff

This past quarter a number of San Diego Free Press contributors and editors have been mentioned on other media sites or received special recognition for their activism in the community. Our congratulations to the people acknowledged below, not just for their words on this site, but for their compassion, insights and commitment.

SDFP contributor and retired executive director of the City Heights Community Development Corporation Jay Powell played a special role in the City Heights Community Development Corporation Scholarship fundraiser which raised over $4,000 dollars for next year’s scholarship awards. Jay, his wife Roz Hirst and Ken and Kate Grimes matched the donations that will help City Heights students with their college tuition. (December 2017)

December 5^th 2017 was declared Maria Garcia Day in recognition of her contributions to the Latino community in San Diego.  The declaration followed on the heels of the Governor’s award for Historic Preservation, a Latina Champion Award from the The San Diego Union-Tribune and Citizen of the Year Award from the San Diego chapter of Phi Delta Kappa.

The American Bar Association recognized the Friends of the City Heights Library for its City Heights Law Day 2017, designating it as the best in the country!  City Heights resident, attorney and SDFP contributor John Stump  provided oversight of all of the moving parts required to make the first City Heights Law Day event in 2016 a success and was involved with this year’s event. The award will be bestowed on February 2, 2018 in Vancouver, Canada.  (November 2017)

SDFP editor Brent Beltrán was chosen by San Diego CityBeat in their “Best of San Diego 2017: Person” category. He was recognized for his community activism in Barrio Logan and the significant role he played in the protests against labor leader Mickey Kasparian. (November 2017)

Brent worked tirelessly on the Yes on B & C campaign in Barrio Logan in 2014.  A little girl in the neighborhood thought Brent was pretty special and drew a picture of him in appreciation.  We think Brent is pretty special too.

Activism for a just and healthy world is in the DNA of Brent’s family. They were awarded a home in Logan Heights this year through Habitat for Humanity. Olympia Beltrán, Brent’s wife and SDFP contributor was voted onto Habitat for Humanity’s Board of Directors.  Olympia’s mother and SDFP supporter Glo Andrade deserves a special shout out.  She is always on the front line of protests that affect her community and always there to celebrate its accomplishments.

San Diego Veteran for Peace and SDFP contributor Gil Field received a City of San Diego Human Relations Commission Award.  Gil is involved with the Veterans for Peace Compassion Campaign which quietly delivers sleeping bag sets downtown late at night after homeless individuals have bedded down, often without blankets. They handed out their 3,200 sleeping bag set this month. (November 2017)

The OBRag turns 10!  It is astounding that a progressive site that depends on volunteers and small donations has survived from the George W Bush years, through the Obama years, and now into the Trump years.  What makes this even more astounding is that the OBRag first hit the streets in paper form as the OB People’s Rag in 1970 and continued publishing into 1976. That first issue contained “a critique of the “Miami-Beachization” of OB.”  Sound familiar?

Editor Frank Gormlie has never lost sight of the critical civic need to “pressure for the radical social, economical, political and cultural changes that our society needs in order for the people to have their just and rightful power and freedom”.  In October 2007, Patty Jones would provide the significant technical expertise to resume publishing the OBRag 31 years later, but this time online.

Most of the SDFP editors and many SDFP contributors wrote for the OBRag while the masthead still said “Freaks, Uppity Women & Politicos”.  In 2012, San Diego Free Press spun off from the OBRag, which remains our sister media platform.  Both Patty and Frank are also on the SDFP editorial board.

Of course they threw a party!  The OBRag continues to be an astounding labor of love for a special place and a commitment to preserving its unique spirit. (October 2017)

SDFP contributor Mimi Pollack was a multiple award winner this year at the San Diego Press Club‘s Excellence in Journalism Awards. She garnered three second place awards for “Herbert Siguenza-Melding Cultures” (Entertainment Reporting- La Prensa), “An English Teacher’s Perspective on How Immigrants Enrich This Country” ( Essay/ Commentary/ Opinion- Times of San Diego), and “Good for the Soul- Community Gardens” ( Gardening- Edible Magazine), and third place for “The Plight of Adjunct Teachers”  (Education- originally published in Diario Judio). (October 2017)