Cindy Arnold:
CLASS OF 1978
Wyomissing Area High SchoolClass of 1978
Wyomissing, PA
Duke UniversityClass of 1982
Durham, NC
Mountain Lakes High SchoolClass of 1978
Mountain lakes, NJ
Cindy's Story
Life
Life Bio, hmmm. Well, I guess I can start with the most recent. Since 2003, IÂve been living with a wonderful man (Mike) in the Ponderosa Pines of southwestern Colorado (the Durango/ Four Corners area). Mike and I met at a youth camp, where heÂs been a parent advisor, and I was helping out as a volunteer. We live in a mountain cabin home that he designed and built gradually over the past 30 years. ItÂs on 600 acres of woods, where five generations of his family have lived, and that now is a wildlife preserveÂwe have deer, elk, coyote, bobcat, rabbits, hawks, and many other creatures that live around us. Mike is a divorced father of two. His son (25)and his wife lives in Florida, and his daughter (23), her husband and their three-year-old son live about 10 miles from our home. So through Mike, IÂve become a grandmother, despite never marrying nor having any kids!!
Before meeting Mike and uniting our lives, I had lived in El Paso, Texas for 15 years (more about that in the work bio). Prior to El Paso, I lived in northeastern North Carolina. I moved there after graduating from Duke.
In terms of my family, my brother Doug is married, has two kids and lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he works for an electric company. My father died in 2003 from a sudden heart attack, and my mother moved to Ohio to live near my brother.
And for me, well, when people ask me where I'm from, I still say "I grew up in the Wyomissing Area,". And, although I've spent the longest part of my life in El Paso, I don't consider myself a Texan. A border resident, living in the Southwest, but not a Texan.
And some time soon, Mike and I hope to take a trip to visit my homeplaces, both in Wyomissing, and in North Carolina. He grew up on the west side of the Mississippi--in Colorado and southern California, except for a two year stint in the Army. So the East Coast is all new to him. And, it's been many, many years since I've been back to North Carolina, although my mother and I spent a couple days in Pennsylvania a few years ago.
Workplace
For the past 18 years I have worked in El Paso, Texas for a Mexican immigrant women workers organization, La Mujer Obrera. During those years, IÂve held various positions in the organization, all related to fundraising ...Expand for more
and community/economic development programs. Currently I am the executive director of La Mujer Obrera's daughter organization, El Puente Community Development Corporation.
I still work for the organization even though my home is in Colorado (thank goodness for cell phones and the internet, although I also commute to El Paso at least 10 days each month).
I moved to El Paso from northeastern North Carolina, where I had helped to create a women workers center, Center for WomenÂs Economic Alternatives. It was through that organization that I came to know about the work in El Paso, and eventually agreed to join La Mujer Obrera.
So, basically ever since graduating from college nearly 25 years ago, IÂve worked on behalf of low-income women workers rightsÂboth through community/workplace organizing and business development.
I came into this path for my life, while in college. Originally I went to school, as a pre-med student, planning to become a rural family doctor. But in my sophomore year, I became involved in a student organization (North Carolina Student Rural Health Coalition), which defined health as not only an individual physical issue, but also as community well-being. And the groupÂs principal strategy was community organizing.
That group gave me a summer job for the next two years, and then I began working for them full time after graduating. And through those positions, I came to know the women and issues, which have guided my work and life ever since.
And in recognition of that work, IÂm proud to have received a national Gloria Women of Vision award in 2003, named in honor of Gloria Steinem, and given by the Ms. Foundation for Women. The honor is particularly important to me, as my father died a month later. So I'm very grateful to having received the award while he was able to attend the ceremony with my mother and Mike.
And in 2006, our organization celebrated its 25th anniversary, and we were honored with retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as our keynote speaker for the anniversary gala event. It was a huge thrill and kudo for our organization, which has a long history of advocacy (even militancy) on behalf of immigrant women workers' rights, to host the Justice, who is a native of El Paso.
Register for Free to view all details!
Yearbooks
Reunions
Photos
