Universal Living Wage Benefit
May 08, 2004

The night was just superb. At first, I was concerned because there weren’t as many people as I had hoped…but the people who came were into understanding more about the Universal Living Wage and hearing Richard Troxell speak about it.

The Universal Living Wage explains how businesses thrive when their employees receive a living wage…and that wage is on a sliding scale so that someone in Denver pays a different wage than someone in Austin or NYC.
The wage allows someone to afford housing, and with housing comes stability,
and with stability comes happiness for the employee and the employer. These are my simple words, not Richard’s. If you want to learn more about how it works, visit the http://www.universallivingwage.org site. Learn how you can get involved and make a difference. How homelessness affects all of us, just not those on the streets, struggling to survive. At the going rate of $5.15 an hour, no one is thriving or making ends meet.

The sweetest moment for me, of the evening, was when Colleen’s painting went for $750 dollars…she is Richard’s 13 year old daughter, and the painting was of a gypsyesque woman praying in her long black robes, covered in beautiful jewels and bracelets. Watching Colleen’s face was precious…she was so proud to be helping her dad help others.

Jason volunteered his culinary expertise, so the hor-deurves were excellent.

David and Sue volunteered their gorgeous home on the hill…so we had a comfortable, open house to gather in.

My friends who donated so much of their time…Thank you to: Cat Reynolds, for gathering 3/4 of all the signatures on my purple electric guitar…which brought in $3000!

Rafe Foreman, who came all the way from Dallas, was our live auctioneer. Hilarious! And he can do that, “Do I hear four hundred dol-five five fiddy going for five now I hear sixdo I hear six fiddy” reaaaaaally fast.

Peter Bay, conductor of the Austin Symphony…for allowing himself to be auctioned off for a dinner date!

Eddy Hobizal…for coming and providing piano music…

Gene Cowan for making a 10 minute video piece on the ULW and Richard that we could show to everyone attending…and that Richard can use to further the ULW campaign. Thank you, Gene!

I feel so blessed to have friends that step up to the plate when I ask them to participate in something so important. They really made the night. Thank you.

posted by Sara Hickman at 10:58 am
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