President’s Message
Many Thanks to the hardworking NWPC Fresno 2024 Board! Please join me in welcoming our NWPC Fresno Board for 2025–
Lynn Badertscher – President
Cathy Brass – CFO ADMIN
Vacant – VP ADMIN
Marsha Conant – Past President
Myra Coble – Secretary
Barbara Castle – State Director
Darcy Brown – VP PAC
Linda Knight – Treasurer PAC
I am writing this message at the end of a most tumultuous year for those of us in NWPC, Fresno. We had an incredibly successful year of fundraising and monthly meetings. Locally, most of our endorsed candidates were elected, making our fundraising efforts so very worthwhile. At the same time, the November Presidential Election dashed so many of our dreams and broke our hearts. For many of us the upcoming administration leaves us very concerned for the NWPC values that we hold dear.
I hope all of you will work with me and our newly installed Board to continue the fight for women’s equality. The new year brings in 2025, the fiftieth anniversary of NWPC Fresno. This cannot be the year that this caucus gives in to despair. We must be more determined than that!
We have much to be proud of in the Central Valley. We have many women who have been elected and re-elected to office in our area. School boards and city council seats are populated with women we have endorsed and financially supported. Many of those officials we are blessed to count as members of our own caucus. This year we also endorsed and supported candidates in Madera and Tulare counties. We make a difference!
In the November election our endorsed, successfully elected candidates include:
Danielle Parra – State Center Community College No 3
Itzi Robles – Fresno County Board of Education Area 3
Consuelo Diaz – College of Sequoias, Ward 4
Elizabeth Jonasson Rosas – Fresno Unified Trustee Area 2
Claudia Cazares – Fresno Unified Trustee Area 6
Nasreen Johnson – State Center Community College District Trustee Area 2
Wilma Hashimoto – Clovis Unified School District
Congratulations!
As we move forward let’s hope our caucus can find fresh ways to reach out to embrace new members who share our values and support for our issues. NWPC was established in 1971 as a multi-partisan organization. The polls we saw throughout this past summer and into November showed that the majority of Americans, across party lines, share our stand on reproductive rights for women. It seems that now is the time for us to put aside partisan politics and reach out to people who support our core values and issues. These include Passage of the Equal Rights Amendment; Reproductive Rights for Women; Equal Pay; Gender Parity in Elected Office; support for Anti-Discrimination Laws and Policies; and Increased Access to Childcare and Other Dependent Care. We need to make these issues American issues, not partisan issues.
So, let’s reach out to our family, our friends, our neighbors, our houses of worship, and our acquaintances and invite them to a meeting or hand them a NWPC Fresno brochure. Give us a chance to welcome them into our caucus so that they too can fight for solutions to the feelings of despair, disappointment, and inequality.
I look forward to seeing you on January 7th!
In the spirit of the season:
Peace on Earth, Goodwill to Everyone,
Lynn
