History of PC4C




Pierce County for Change: History

In December, 2008 President-Elect Barack Obama asked his supporters to:

  1. organize to support his agenda.
  2. Support local and state officials and call upon them to support his agenda.
  3. Keep the community spirit alive with civic engagement.
Specifically, he asked that we host an event on the National Day of Service (MLK’s birthday.)

Ninety people signed up to attend this first meeting. It began to snow heavily about 2 hours before the meeting was to begin. Sixty people came out in the snow to see what they could do to help our President-Elect. Perhaps because it was snowing that day we chose to do an event that would help Pierce County residents to keep their homes heated. We called it “Keep the Heat On!“ We decided to distribute information on heating assistance programs, actions to take when faced with a potential shutoff, and safe heating practices. And we agreed to look at heating policies to see how they could be made more effective in helping our neighbors to “keep the heat on.” We also wanted to provide people with information on getting involved in our movement.

A short month later, on January 19, fifty-six volunteers took informational flyers door-to-door, handed them out to people entering the MLK ceremonies at the Tacoma Dome and distributed then to food banks, clinics, community centers and grocery stores. We distributed 2000 packets of information, talked to people who had shut-off notices or were concerned about how to pay their bills, and advised them where they could go for help.

This event was an amazing collective experience. We were convinced that progressive action could be a positive force for the community.

Since September, 2009 our steering committee has been studying how Pierce County for Change can be most effective. Early on we identified the need to promote a progressive agenda for local issues. With a firm belief that it is the duty of every citizen to understand the important issues of our time and work for change, we now focusing on progressive issues specific to Pierce County. Local progressives are invited to join us in moving Pierce County in a direction that will make it a great place to live, work and do business.