If you were unable to join us but would still like to make a donation in honor of the Lynn Campbell Memorial Fund, please click below:
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To give you taste of an evening that touched our hearts and tickled our funny bone, see photos and read the powerful letters from Lynns parents and her partner Cheri Pies.
Mary and Warren Campbell
November 10, 2009
Greetings to our Astraea Friends:
While we cannot be with you tonight, we will be joining your celebration in our minds and in our conversations here in California as you again acknowledge the astounding achievements of our now middle-aged Astraea organization.
Take a moment to reflect on how Astraea began three decades ago in the minds of a small group of friends and colleagues who showed the courage and the determination to organize and fight for full participation and acceptance for women everywhere. And so Astraea was born.
Without that outrageously bold beginning, you would not be gathered here tonight. And thousands of women in America and elsewhere would be without the powerful support that they need for their personal pride and for their empowerment.
As the parents of one of those brash pioneers, Lynn Campbell, we marvel at what that small experiment has become. Lynn and the others were happy warriors in the never-ending battle for equality and recognition. They dreamedand they acted on their dream. As Lynns parents and family, we are deeply grateful that even now, twenty-five years after her death, Astraea still remembers her with this annual memorial testimonial.
Lynn worked for justice for farm workers, for domestic workers, for women in general, and for lesbians. In spite of her brave struggle to overcome melanoma, she succumbed at age twenty-eight. She would be proud beyond description at what Astraea has accomplished. In her stead, we as her parents and sisters share the pride in your growth and in your contributions to a better and fairer world of acceptance and opportunity. Bless you all for your part in that effort.
In solidarity,
Mary and Warren Campbell
and sisters Jill and Alice
A Letter for the Lynn Campbell Memorial Fund Event
10 November 2009
by Cheri Pies
I am genuinely sorry I cant be here tonight in person to be celebrating Astraea and raising money for the Lynn Campbell Memorial Fund And in some convoluted way, I know Lynn is sorry she cant be here too she loved a good fund-raising occasion.
So, since neither of us can be here with you tonight, I wanted to bring us to you, through my words and some memories of Lynn.
I can remember the first real date I had with Lynn Campbell. What I mean is that although I first met Lynn when she was a high school friend of my younger sister, sometime in 1975, it wasnt until April 1983 that we had our first date. By sheer coincidence (and isnt that how true love often happens?) our paths crossed when I was working as a consultant for the Funding Exchange. We remembered each other, vaguely it seemed, and made a plan to have lunch.
I met Lynn for lunch at the Brick Hut, a now-defunct but once famous and hopping breakfast and lunch spot owned and operated by lesbians in Oakland, California. Sitting there in that booth, eating my favorite Brick Hut lunch, and looking across the table at Lynn I remember thinking to myself this i
