Still Remembering Donna

RantWoman MEANT to post this earlier. A meeting on her calendar jogs her good intentions. RantWoman dedicates the post to anyone plowing into holidays and missing loved ones , grieving the state of the world, or generally needing to be present with yucky topics as well as celebrations.

Remembering Donna Potter Garcia

May 3, 1943 – October 18, 2012

Donna Potter Garcia, longtime President of the Center Park Residents Council, coordinator of scheduling for the Center Park Bus, co-founder of the STAR of Seattle computer center, www.starofseattle.org , passed away unexpectedly overnight October 18-19, seven months to the day after her beloved husband of almost 30 years Joe Garcia also passed away.

Donna grew up outside of Helena MT. At age 3 she survived a bout of polio but bore the effects of the disease  and many medical challenges her whole life.  After graduating from high school in Townsend MT, Donna moved to Seattle. She worked at Seattle University for 3 years and then completed a psychology degree at the University of Washington.

Over and over Donna poured her passion and energy into all kinds of efforts to make life better in her community. When the Seattle Housing Authority was upgrading computers and offered the Center Park Residents Council some of their old surplus computers, Donna and a number of other residents said "Thanks, but no thanks." The residents of Center Park pointed out the need of people with disabilities for accessibility software, particular forms of common hardware such as trackball mouse or one-handed keyboard. The computers the Housing Authority offered the residents were not able to run the tools residents needed.  This motivated staff and residents to write the first grants funding the STAR Center. The STAR Center has now served Center Park residents, people with disabilities, and other members of the community for over 13 years

Ever since Center Park was built in the 1960's, long before the ADA, Center Park has had its own bus. The bus transports groups of residents on shopping trips, trips to some public events, and also trips to meet individual needs. Donna has been indefatigable in attention to detail and care of people's trip scheduling needs. She also has spoken out clearly when the bus has more than once been threatened by budget cuts. Her leadership set a standard for a number of Resident Councils in other SHA communities.  Donna will be sorely missed and leave very big shoes to fill.

Celebration Program

Opening music                   Charlie Kinder

            MC                             Worthington Enslow

Opening                               Oscar Escalante

Lord's Prayer                      Robert Baughn

Amazing Grace

Donna growing up                        Jim Wells, cousin

The STAR Center               David Keyes, DoIT

The Center Park Bus        Metro person

Open Mic:

We invite people to offer brief remarks

Closing                                  Maymuna Haji Eda

Video and Honoring Donna

Zumba                                   Everyone, however you can

We invite everyone to join us for food. Please come to the STAR center to sign the online guest book which will be shared with distant family members.

The online memorial can be found at http://donnapottergarcia.remembered.com/

Special thanks and remembrance to:

 Jim Wells and Donna’s family; Joe Garcia’s family

The Center Park Residents Council; all Center Park Residents

The STAR of Seattle, Digital Promise, the Broadband Technical Opportunity Program, Edlab Group 

The Seattle Housing Authority

King County Metro