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Join Us for the Haitian Holiday Celebration! We are excited to invite you to a special celebration honoring Haitian culture and heritage on January 1, 2025. Come together to enjoy a traditional Haitian Holiday and celebrate the rich history and resilience of the Haitian community. Celebrate with us the strength and beauty of Haitian culture! Join Us for the Indigenous Healing circles & sessions Experience an Indigenous Healing circles & sessions with Medicine People James Etsity and Mary Blackmountain on December 31, 2024 to January 3, 2025 at the BRIDGE Solidarity Meeting House & Hamsa Home. Join us at the Mass Humanities Storytelling Project We invite you to participate in the BRIDGE Mass Humanities Storytelling Project kicking off with a dynamic conversation with BRIDGE Youth Corps in Conversation with James Etsitty & Kate Abbott on January 3, 2024 at the BRIDGE Solidarity Meeting House & Hamsa Home. Join us at the Black Feminist Book Club! Get your book “Imagination" by Ruha Benjamin and join us for the revival of our partnership with BRIDGE Black Feminist Book Club with Mass MoCA! BLACK FEMINIST - MLK Day of Service January 20 2024 | 6:00 - 8:00 PM BRIDGE Solidarity Meeting House, 965 Main Street Suite 3 | Great Barrington, MA 01230 BLACK FEMINIST BOOK CLUB February 13, 0224 | 5:00 - 7:00 PM 1040 Mass MoCA Way, North Adams, MA  Women to Women Events January 9 2025 | Goals for 2025- Guest Silvia Soria - Zoom Meeting January 16, 2025 | Information about LGBTQ community by EFC- Zoom Meeting January 30 2025 | Knowing BRIDGE by Gwendolyn at BRIDGE Solidarity Meeting House Join Us at the BRIDGE Wellness Day!  Join Us at the BRIDGE Hair Salon!  August was full of Abundant Joy, Healing and Adventure!
 The Solidarity Project Culturally Specific Healing Programs: Wellness Day, Annual Beach Trip, Zumba and Sister to Sister Mawu Hair Salon - All were a big hit! 
Women to Women enjoyed their annual beach trip to our very own Umpacene Falls where Zumba and a healing circle were enjoyed by all! Thank you to our Women to Women leaders for sharing the joy, tips for healthy living and sisterhood! Flowers donated by Pryjma Petals, Lotions by One Mercantile and Essential Oils by Grice Beauty. Solidarity Projects: Farm & GardenOur deer fence is up thanks to our Solidarity Stewards hard work and a helpful volunteer Paul from Great Barrington Fairgrounds!  Lots of tours this month! Scholars, Partners, Fellow Farmers, and Catalyst Dinner guests along with many other friends have come to tour our solidarity economy / food sovereignty project in action!
Did you know that at the Solidarity Farm & Garden we have planted heirloom seeds delivered directly from Palestine along with food from all Countries/regions represented by our BRIDGE community and the Solidarity Farmers? West Africa, Central and South America, Southern US, Haiti & more! And our sacred corn from Baja Mexico from the mexica-purépecha traditional ceremony of 7 blessings that we held in Nahuatl early summer is looming as tall as 10 ft with our blessings this month! Truly majestic. Joyful meditation and care for our community abound in Solidarity Farm & Garden. Medicine Man James returned with his wife Mary (of the Dine/Navajo Nation) returned on his healing journey back to our Peace Garden at Solidarity and shared a healing circle and our foraging activity with our youth at Happiness Toolbox!  Upcoming eventsW2W schedule Date: 7 September 2024 | 6:00 PM Event: Planning BRIDGE Participation at Latino Festival Guests: Estervina Davis & Silvia Soria Venue: Via Zoom Date: 12 September 2024 | 6:00 PM Topic: Skin Care Guests: Sandra Zuniga Venue: Solidarity Meeting House Date: 26 September 2024 | 6:00 PM Topic: Healthy Relationship Guests: Elizabeth Freeman Center Venue: Solidarity Meeting House TRJ and RTF (regular September meetings directed to Know Your Rights)  RSVP to [email protected] Happy to report Berkshire County District Attorney Office is joining our session along with the Great Barrington Police Department! Bring your stories, questions and learn about our civil rights and how to respond to hate crimes. Also Community members bring your questions and concerns… This is a unique opportunity we offer which always serves us well creating a safer community for communities of Color in the Berkshires. We will honor and dedicate our evening to the Civil Rights Act anniversary of 1964! Also! See you around town at the final Du Bois Freedom Center Salon of 2024 and Latino Festival 2024! BRIDGE is a culturally specific women run public health organization: Building a values-aligned Community in Equity * Justice * Health * Accountability * Leadership through Empowerment * Collaboration * Learning * Celebration * Integration We have been proudly awarded the HRiA CHiP for our home County for five years to move the dial on health with a racial equity lens. Seeking to build our coalition to commence in September. If interested, contact registration and put in the email subject line- Let’s Talk about CHiP! Questions? Contact us! [email protected] | 413-274-8142 Fun Labor Day Weekend First Annual Canning & Jarring SJIA Marathon Pop Up with our CEO and BRIDGE friends & Solidarity Growers. Saturday August 31st - Monday September 2nd! Thanks for all that joined us for a canning and jarring sessions at the Solidarity Kitchen with our Solidarity Harvest. Everyone brought their special herbs and recipes and we made pickles, pickled green tomatoes, jalapeno jelly and marinades, traditional Haitian epis, traditional Mexican pico de gallo, homemade Italian spaghetti sauce and Susie’s signature Solidarity themed pickled garden goodness. We all shared wisdom and had a joyful time!  Catalyst Corner: Read our Catalyst Story of our Founding with Bob Norris & come witness two catalyst events: Equity Initiative Launch of BTCF and Pay Equity Summit of Coalition of BRIDGE ILC Cohort Alumni & friends! Join our CEO for the BTCF Equity Initiative Launch in September and the Pay Equity Summit in September. Both of these efforts were catalyzed by BRIDGE and our CEO! Transformative Change local, regional and national! Reminder: Equity Initiative Launch Event Thursday, Sep 19, 2024 from 4:30pm - 6pm Saint James Place (342 Main St, Great Barrington, MA 01230, United States) Berkshires/Columbia County Pay Equity Coalition: 2024 Summit Wedenesday, September 25 at 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center 14 Castle Street Great Barrington, MA 01230  BRIDGE’s Origin Story with Initial Seed Donor and Co-founder Bob Norris — and his enduring link to work today! Our Origin Story! “Their ideas began to ding my bells,” says Norris, a decades-long supporter of social justice initiatives in and around Great Barrington. After agreeing to provide the seed money that would germinate and grow into Multicultural BRIDGE, Norris said something that went on to leave an indelible mark on the history of the organization: “You are going to be a catalyst,” he said, in no uncertain terms, after hearing about the plans VanSant and Bourdon had to address issues of race, poverty and immigration in South County. And just like that, the concept stuck.”  More fun news! Check out Pops Petersons column in the B. Special feature of the CEO and how impacted Pops has been by her work at BRIDGE.   Our Solidarity Office is now officially open on September 2nd in Great Barrington and we welcome Estrella Cando and Flor Pimentel as new Members of the BRIDGE team! Estrella is our Lead Engagement Coordinator of Solidarity Projects and Flor Pimentel as our Solidarity Steward/Family Advocate. We have our program team now close to our Farm & Garden and Meeting House! Contact us: Engagement 413-274-8142 and [email protected]  FAWOHODIE symbol - independence, freedom, emancipation and self -determination
"From the expression: Fawodhodie ene obre na enam.” "Independence comes with its responsibilities." No worries! You can still find our administrative offices and dedicated team upstairs in our Beloved Zabians building home in Lee! Business Office: 413-238-1824 and email [email protected] Thank you all for your donations, engagement and encouraging affirmations! Come find your activity with BRIDGE and join us for healing, justice, equity and repair! We are making a call for the activists, allies and accomplices support of 2016 & 2020 to surface again in time talent treasure and/or testimony for BRIDGE and overall for our democracy! Our freedoms depend on it! Come to an event or be in touch! Dear BRIDGE community: It is a busy August season and we wanted to update you on upcoming events! Solidarity Farm & GardenFirst thank you to our farm and distro partners for a fruitful season. We are reaching 200 homes twice a month with fresh nutrient rich farm to table produce. And twice a month we reach 100 of the larger families with another share. We believe access to healthy food is our human right and it brings joy, connection and health! Special thanks to our Solidarity Farm Growers and Farmers at our Great Barrington Fairgrounds Home, our Three Sisters Farm, Sweet Freedom, World Farmers and Home Farm partners for providing the fresh food. Our Solidarity Farm and Garden hosts several businesses, a meditation garden for our growers and their families. We hope to see you in the Fall at the harvest Festival and Fish Fry. Thank you to Wards for the special farm and garden supplies support! Our sacred corn is growing from our indigenous partners. Legacy meetings hosted at Solidarity HouseThank you to Momma Lo for the special food for our Frederick Douglass Event.. Spotlight on Multicultural BRIDGE—catalyzing change and integration In July we read the Fourth of July together in community. It was powerful and a grounding text and activity. Thank you to Mass Humanities and Mass Cultural Council. We had partners from Simon’s Rock, BRIDGE, Du Bois Freedom Center and Diverse Otis to read Douglass’ speech and contextualize his work with that of our Berkshire legends, Elizabeth Freeman and WEB Du Bois. Also BRIDGE was delighted to host Town of Great Barrington Du Bois Legacy Committee monthly meetings and also the Embrace Boston & Du Bois Sculpture Meeting. Dr. Du Bois’s grandson returned to envision the sculpture and beyond with partners across the State at our Solidarity Meeting House. The BRIDGE Story: Catalyst. Love. Impact in community! SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 St. James Place, 352 Main St, Great Barrington, MA 01230 Hear from our CEO and Chief Architect of the Equity Fund Youth Time- Sign up this week! Join us on Wednesday for youth training! Qi Gong and Capa with Tagan on August 9th Register for August 9th here…
Register your kids for Happiness Toolbox. We still have room -- and transportation is available. Field trips to Lake Mansfield, Flying Cloud Campus with Circus Up and Visionary Acts, Local partnering Farms, Boat Day on Onota Lake, Apple picking, etc. Activities include arts & Crafts; economics, sports, waterslides, wellness, dance, etc. Sneak peek at the schedule:   The BRIDGE Youth Corps gathered at the new Solidarity Meeting House, a multipurpose program and gathering space with a professional kitchen in Great Barrington, Mass., supported by a Community Development Block Grant for Food Security administered by Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation. BRIDGE was recently featured in The Berkshire Edge Business Spotlight Multicultural BRIDGE—catalyzing change and integration. Pictured above L-R: Deisy Bautista Santos, Leader-in-Training for Happiness Toolbox and Solidarity Steward Projects; Stella Wright, Program Assistant and Youth Coordinator; Jonathan Bautista Santos, Lead Youth Solidarity Steward Projects; David Bautista Santos, Youth Leader Solidarity Steward Projects; and Florence Afanukoe, Lead Engagement Coordinator of Youth Development and Public Health. Photo by John Dolan. August Events   We are planning our September 16th Know Your Rights event where we host a conversation about Civil Rights with the US Attorneys office. Currently we seek partners to co-present. Email us at [email protected] or call at 413-274-8142 or 413-274-7037. BRIDGE will host in Great Barrington and the Du Bois Legacy Committee will co-host. I am hoping you will co-host with us. During this event while we educate and listen in our community, we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Many of you know our first racial justice partner and educator was DOJ CRS — this group was enacted as a part of this Act. Additionally this legislation covers voting rights, equal opportunity, desegregation of schools and public places, etc. As a BRIDGE community of partners, allies and collaborators, we invite you to read the CRA of 1964 — and we hope as organizations and individuals you can connect your work to distinct Title sections as we work collectively on planning our Justice equity and advocacy work & partnerships during the remaining quarter of 2024. EXCITING NEWSBRIDGE was awarded a five year public health grant to reduce health disparities from a culturally specific lens. We cannot wait to build our CHiP Coalition! And now we have our own passenger van for our mutual aid programs! Thanks to our Community Development Block Grant!  Thank you to Great Barrington Agricultural Commission for support with our irrigation system! Enjoy the summer! Stay cool! Thank you for being a part of our community, Gwendolyn & the BRIDGE team We hope you like what you read and can support our work with a pledge, recurring donation or renewing your membership! Someone asked our CEO what BRIDGE has been up to….
Looking back In honor of Juneteenth our BRIDGE team had a day of rest and our BRIDGE community celebrated with DuBois Freedom Center with a compelling message from congresswoman Nikema Wiliams to get engaged in this election season these last months. Pay attention to what is happening with voting rights across the country — especially Atlanta because it impacts all of us! Get involved this election season - voter suppression is the civil rights issue of our time. Also in honor of Juneteenth we had our Solstice BIPOC farm tour visiting Sweet Freedom, Home Farm, Sovereign Herbs, Catalyst Collaborative and Wildseed! Queer and black-led farms thinking of our ancestors, planning for our future, collectively reclaiming our agricultural knowledge and practices while cultivating beauty, partnership and fresh nutrient-rich food. Our first tour was BRIDGE’s very own Solidarity Farm and Garden and MumBett Freedom Farm. Next tour will be at the Autumnal Equinox! What's Happening This MonthRacial Justice No TRJ or RTF this month! Take a moment to see the Levers Of Change site where our CEO provided input in 2022 and a discussion paper. Our next stop is the Policylink Equity Summit curating a BIPOC affinity group! In the time where DEI is transforming and under art am across the nation, this national work with global reach is timely. We are going to pause our July meetings as we gather the report from our HRiA - sponsored work to reflect on our work this past year. Topics include Housing, Haitian resettlement, food sovereignty, substance use and recovery in Black communities and its interaction with culturally specific victim services. July 6th Mass Humanities has sponsored our Reading Frederick Douglas Together event where we will be weaving in stories of Elizabeth Freeman, Sojourner Truth and Dr Du Bois. Partnering with Dr Alexandria Russell (BSO, Tanglewood and Black Women Legacies), we invite readers of excerpts from the July 5th address. Followed by a traditional tasting! Let us know if you can make it to Solidarity House at [email protected]. Join our lineup of community voices and let us know if you are interested in reading contact us at [email protected].  August is almost here! The Happiness Toolbox is gearing up for fun. And getting back in the groove for school with our positive education framework. Our theme is Adventures in the Berkshires. Some activities and trips will include trips to lake Mansfield, Jiminy Peak, cooking and sports as well as language and culture. Our youth leaders are planning and leveling up on fun, community engagement and service learning and leadership skills! Women to Women- our Latina Women support group Please join us for weekly meetings! Here are the topics…  BIPOC Wellness Day-July 3rd BIPOC Wellness Wednesday and Sister to Sister Chat with Dr Jean Clarke Mitchell RSVP to attend the day and we will let you know services available by our culturally representative healers and wellness providers!  Mawu Pop up Hair Salon July 30 & 31  Our community care corner-- Send healing prayers, vibes and blessings Donations to organizations in their honor Rev Joallen Forte (Macedonia Baptist Church) is steady recovering. Long- time partner on MLK, DuBois and Racial Justice. In her and her father Rev Forte’s honor donate to Macedonia Baptist Church for its 80th anniversary year. And to care for her family’s needs as she heals including one of our youth leaders donate to the GoFundMe… James Etsity, traveling Medicine Man of the Arizona-based Dine/Navajo nation is steady recovering. James resides in the largest reservation in the nation and the Berkshire aka his second home… vista 6-12 a year.
Make a donation in his honor and we will send it to him — he has stewarded our blessings for the Solidarity projects for the last two years, our new neighbors for their transition and also our CEO for 20+ years.
It was an honor to host ceremonial leaders from the Penabscot Tribe of Maine this past weekend at Solidarity Meeting House and Hamsa Home! And a care train for Samuel VanSant (founding and foundational support to BRIDGE development, finance, Solidarity Projects and of course the CEO.) Stay tuned for July 15th start!  Spotlight Series: Isabel WilkersonJul 22, 2023, 5:00pm | Tanglewood | Seiji Ozawa Hall, Lenox, MA
Following Isabel Wilkerson’s presentation, BRIDGE CEO and Founding Director Gwendolyn VanSant, will co-lead a facilitated discussion for those that want to process the incredible impact of Dr. Wilkerson’s work and discuss critical action steps in our collective community. The discussion will take place in the Volpe Family Studio at the Linde Center for Music and Learning informed by Isablel Wilkerson' talk on Caste. All are welcome and attendance is limited. Send rsvp to BRIDGE at [email protected] to reserve a spot.
  Dear BRIDGE community: We are having a busy celebratory start to the summer. Thanks for the many of you that came out for the second annual public health event. Our focus was healing in Communities of Color and we were able to preview our new Solidarity Meeting House and Farm/Garden and our new Hamsa Home, a culturally specific temporary supported housing space in Great Barrington with nearly 100 visitors. Thanks to Cravings, Momma Los and Lucias Kitchen for the food. Thank you Grice Beauty, Yaad Wellness, Berkshire Balance and more for an amazing sample of our wellness programs and offerings! Stay tuned for more tours to follow this soft opening. We have some important dates for you in July! See the list below and we hope you will join us! Starting this afternoon, there are many opportunities to engage in justice and equity work! Mark your calendars this summer to attend both of Tanglewoods' events with Isabel Wilkerson and Saidiya Hartman. (More to come soon!) We are happy to be partnering with Tanglewood on the Spotlight Series and our Women to Women group meeting composer Mutual Aid...continuing to build our solidarity economy! We need summer volunteers for our food distribution for participants in our BRIDGE program! Now operating out of Solidarity Meeting House....
BRIDGE Gala Please save the date for 15th anniversary weekend on October 8th, 2-5 PM at Jacob's Pillow. More information coming soon about ways to partner, sponsor and come celebrate! And email us at [email protected] to reserve your tickets and add your name to the community ticket list! Women To Women:
Get ready for lots of fun and learning this Spring and Summer with Multicultural BRIDGE! We have amazing events coming up in May and June, so stay tuned for more info! Congratulations to Florence Afanukoe! 
Come share a meal with us and support the work we do!
Save The Date for the opening of BRIDGE’s Solidarity Meeting House
We are celebrating a full Solidarity Garden! Want to join our team?
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06/01/23
06/8/23
06/15/23
06/22/23
At BRIDGE we have just had a full month and I am looking forward to the richness coming ahead in 2023. Our honoring of Martin Luther King Jr and service was to gather for a 3-day strategic in-service retreat this year with staff, board, board/staff together and representatives that have contributed to BRIDGE’s story in the past, present and some who have recently committed to the future. We decided BRIDGE is a love story held within a beloved and embodied community. Stay tuned for the many insights and outputs and for now take a peek at what our staff and board have to say when they think about BRIDGE.  We also launched our gala planning efforts. Please let us know if you have a skill you want to share or if your organization or family would like to sponsor our third quinquennial gala celebration. We have world-renowned scholars joining local and regional artists to honor the mission of BRIDGE at Jacob’s Pillow. Thank you to the Pillow, Berkshire Bank Foundation and Greylock Federal Credit Union for being our early bird sponsors. And thank you to Mass MoCA for the special announcement posted on our County Billboards… Be in touch if you want to be a part of this epic celebration of movement building for equity and justice. 
We want to welcome Florence back on our team as a Lead Engagement Coordinator in Community Health and Youth Leadership. Welcome to Delano as our Racial Justice Coordinator. Welcome back to Estervina as a Lead Engagement Coordinator in Outreach and Client Services. Our BRIDGE team has renewed its commitment to our race analysis by 6 BRIDGE reps taking PISAB’s Undoing Racism. Join our Race Task Force and Towards Racial Justice this month as Delano steps in to Lead Racial Justice & Equity Coordinator. Join Stephanie and Delano this evening, Feb. 2nd on Zoom and join Florence and Delano Monday at 12:30 on Zoom. We hope to be in person in the Spring at our new site and other Berkshire locations! Finally Gwendolyn had the honor of co-hosting the Trauma Research Foundation Social Justice Summit with CEO and Founder Licia Sky to discuss Race as Trauma in the Body and our collective path to healing. Global thinkers on somatics and racism gathered for three days and we offer a special shout out to our BRIDGE activists, allies and accomplices joined to hold care and accountability spaces as a part of the conference flow. Participants expressed joy, grief, rage and other resonances and processed in community for three days inspired by TRF, Dr. Bessel vanderKolk and thought leaders around the world. I want to say Happy Black History Month and please know we will be celebrating all year highlighting and hosting Black Feminists throughout the year in presentations, book clubs and launches as well as our gala original performances and talks. Save the date for Elizabeth Freeman Day in Great Barrington as BRIDGE and other organizations collaboratively amplify Elizabeth Freeman starting in Sheffield and landing in Great Barrington at the Courthouse. Collaboratively, Du Bois Freedom Center, BRIDGE, NAACP, educators and others are arranging a beautiful event with activists and allies. This month, BRIDGE will be holding a Black History Month discussion with Berkshire Bank for its employees and co-hosting a concert at Simon’s Rock on Feb 26th with the Harlem Chamber Players.  Keep an eye out for BRIDGE and Town of Great Barrington Du Bois Day celebrations! Earlier in the week, Delano Burrowes, will be the Du Bois speaker at Simon’s Rock on february 20. Finally, thank you to all of our donors! We met our FY22 fundraising goals and thank you to those who have contributed to our Solidarity Meeting House and Kitchen Pantry. We have our new lease at 965 So. Main St in Great Barrington for our dedicated program site. Thank you to those who made it to Brava to see the plans for the site! And on closing… This has been a devastating week and I offer these two images for mediation because sometimes there are no words and as a mother of a Black Trans daughter, a Black biracial son, a sister of a Black man and most simply a human I have none. But both Tyre Nichols and Basquiat in their artistry invite me to sit with my breath and find spaces of grief, healing and interrogation all at once.. This Basquiat print hangs in my home office:
Share any thoughts you have here in our virtual hub. See below notes from our BRIDGE team! In solidarity together, Gwendolyn
Mutual AidWinter is a time for reflecting, assessing, celebrating, and planning. BRIDGE's Mutual Aid program began in 2020 as a response to the community's needs in the face of Covid. The program has continued to expand and grow stronger throughout the years. Here is some of what we accomplished in 2022, by the numbers:
Hello: I want to thank all the many hands that have made a beautiful Fall Season at BRIDGE. We have been around the community at BCC, Great Barrington Courthouse, Great Barrington Farmers Market, Mass MoCA Berkshire-Based gala, Great Barrington Fairgrounds with our BRIDGE Solidarity Garden and Farm with our Fish Fry and Harvest Festival and Pig Roast. We have been launching our Trauma Survivors program and associated services. Please be in touch if you have questions about our culturally specific victim assistance. Winter is on its way here and our mutual aid shifts from CSA shares to groceries and we could use your support! We want to thank Kate Bailey for the service she provided for this first season of land access, along with Stephanie Wright and many, many of our long-time BRIDGE participants. BRIDGE can process fuel assistance applications for BCAC in Spanish and English– let us know if you want to connect with our Engagement Team. Also, a special thank you for raising $3110 for Gwendolyn's Birthday SJIA and Lily’s SJIA at $715! This is our annual appeal season, and we are off to a good start! BRIDGE - We are a collective, movement-building community across workplace and community spaces catalyzing change and integration We want to hear from you as we plan our activities for next year! BRIDGE is a Racial Justice & Equity Organization Survivors of Trauma Program
BRIDGE is a Food Sovereignty and Land Access Program
A special thank you to our partner farmers this third season summer: Sweet Freedom Farm; Three Sisters; Full Well Farm; MumBett Freedom Farm; Off the Shelf Farm and Gould Farm (and Random Harvest and BCAC and our individual donors!) We are of course happy to launch our own Solidarity Garden and Farm at Great Barrington Fairgrounds BRIDGE is a Training and Education Program via the New Pathways platform IDEA Tuesdays Online Training: Executive Leadership Cohort 2022 (starting Nov. 15th)  Online Training: Inclusive Leadership Cohort 2023 (enrollment open Dec. 15th for Feb/March launch) Cultural Competence Foundations (online)
 Women To Women
Veterans Spotlight of Keyshuna Cole (BRIDGE's Online Business Manager & Scheduler)  Keyshuna is a Native of Mississippi and joined the United States Army at 17. There she worked in a dual role as a Healthcare Specialist and Human Resources Specialist. In her 11 year career, she received numerous awards and achievements. Keyshuna contributes her work ethic, sense of duty, and organization to her time in the military. Thank you, Keyshuna, for your service! Volunteers Needed 
In Solidarity, Gwendolyn and the BRIDGE Team |
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