AARP California

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

To celebrate Black History Month and "Firsts After 50," we're highlighting trailblazing Californians like Emmett Ashford (1914- 1980), who in 1966 became the first Black American umpire in Major League Baseball at age 52. Ashford's story came to our attention when his daughter, Adrienne Bratton, shared a comment about him our Facebook page on a post about another famous Jefferson High School graduate and Angeleno -- Ralph Bunche, the first Black American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

This past Election Day, AARP was proud to celebrate the passage of “The Los Angeles County Transportation Plan”, or Measure M. This ballot initiative is poised to deliver over $120 billion dollars’ worth of transit improvement projects that will relieve traffic across the region, fix sidewalks and potholes, and improve our quality of life. ( Read more here.) Now that the campaign is over, we’re hard at work at assembling an action plan to ensure that Measure M benefits AARP members across the County’s 88 cities. This week, we celebrated Measure M’s passage with our volunteers, and discussed the official launch of our special Los Angeles County transportation advocacy team. This team will be “in the know” about opportunities to speak up with your voice and help shape how Measure M dollars are spent in your communities. We’ll tell you all about the big meetings to attend and which elected representatives to contact. If you’d like to join this team, click here.

In celebration of Black History Month AARP is recognizing Black Americans who have achieved phenomenal “firsts.” In this spirit, AARP in Los Angeles is sharing their stories here on our blog, as well as inviting followers on social media to share their own stories.

For her Dedication and Commitment to Community Service, Davis will be Awarded the Most Prestigious AARP Volunteer Award.

By Elizabeth Blish Hughes

By Ray Huard

AARP and the Fraud Watch Network congratulate volunteer Ken Allan on being named a 2016, 3 rd Quarter Fraud Fighter for his outstanding work in the fight against fraud, scams, and identity theft. Ken is being recognized for

AARP’s “Portraits of Community” is a unique project that presents a vibrant visual representation of how communities can embody the 8 Domains of Livability. These 8 Domains highlight the idea that our neighborhoods, roadways, and social interactions should be constructed in a way that benefit people of all ages and abilities, and that building communities in such a way has a lasting, positive impact. “Portraits of Community” is a “visualization” of the wants and needs of community members.

Very few people have had as much impact in shaping California as Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Vallejo was born in Monterey in 1807, when that city was the capital of Alta California in the Viceroy of New Spain. As a young man, Vallejo worked as a clerk for English merchant William Hartnell, learning English, French, and Latin. Vallejo was serving as personal secretary to the Governor of California, Luis Arguello in 1821, when news of Mexico’s independence from Spain reached Monterey. He then enrolled as a cadet at the Presidio of San Francisco.