IN MEMORY

One Who Dared

Remembering Harvy Blanks

When Harvy Blanks was a child in Chicago, a teacher took a group of neighborhood children to a performance of “Aida” starring Leontyne Price, and Blanks was smitten. He could see himself on the stage. His journey detoured through the UW and college football. He was a star Husky running back during the ’67 and ’68 seasons. He was well known for his speed as well as his resistance to racism within the football program. He didn’t hesitate to speak out about how African American players were treated. In 1969, he and three other Black players were suspended from

Many of the special ceremonies for students, families and their UW communities are returning to campus after having to move online during the pandemic. These multicultural and multilingual events are designed especially to celebrate students from underrepresented groups as well as their families who sacrificed and supported them through college. For some events, times are still to be determined. the team after they refused to pledge unconditional loyalty to Coach Jim Owens, the team and the University. Carver Gayton, an assistant coach and former player, resigned in protest of the suspension. While the three other players were later reinstated to the team, Blanks, who had suffered a broken foot and was likely the most outspoken, was not.

After completing his studies at the UW, he enrolled at Cornell University to earn a master’s degree before going into acting, directing and writing plays. A gifted actor who performed in a wide range of theater works include plays by Shakespeare and Tennessee Williams, he kept the works of August Wilson at the core of his performances. He spent 25 years of his career at the Denver Center Theater Company. In 2017 he made his Broadway debut performing in “Jitney,” the only Wilson play that hadn't, until then, been performed in the nation’s theatrical center.

In 2021, Blanks and the three other former players who stood up to the UW coach and Gayton were inducted into the UW Sports Hall of Fame as “The Five Who Dared.” Blanks died in Denver on Feb. 6 at age 74.

Celebrations and Graduations

Undocu Graduation Celebration

May 26 Kelly ECC

Filipino Graduation

June 4

— Intellectual House

Lavender Graduation Celebration

June 4, Virtual

La Raza Graduation Celebration

June 8 – 5-6:30pm — Intellectual House

Black Graduation Celebration

June 9, 8 p.m. Meany Hall

Pasifik Graduation

June 9

— Intellectual House

Native Graduation

June 10

MEDIA

A Drum in One Hand, A Sockeye in the Other By Charlotte Coté, Associate Professor of American Indian Studies University of Washington Press, 2022

Tapping into her scholarly expertise as well as her experience as a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht on Vancouver Island, Charlotte Coté tells stories of Indigenous food sovereignty. She brings forward stories of family members maintaining their sacred food practices and taking steps to move away from unhealthy contemporary foods and Western diets.

As she explores food sovereignty, Coté also examines how the return to traditional and healthy practices like eating salmon and berries and community gardening, can repair relationships with the natural world. The 1990s saw a start of a movement among Indigenous peoples in the U.S. and Canada to use food sovereignty to strengthen community bonds, support healthy decision-making, and assert cultural and political autonomy. Here Coté looks at how Indigenous people today continue to face food insecurity but are finding ways to wellness through food and family.

The Town of Babylon By Alejandro Varela, ’06 Astra House, 2022

In his debut novel, Alejandro Varela tells the story of Andres, a public health professor who, in the wake of his husband’s infidelity, returns home to see his ailing father. While in the suburban town of his childhood, he reconnects with old friends and his first love. And he attends his 20-year high school reunion. The novel explores queer, racial and class identity as well as the role of community in one’s own health. Varela, a School of Public Health alum, often draws from his interest in the health of individuals and community in his writing. Besides this novel, he has had stories published in magazines including Harper’s Magazine and The New Republic.

The UW Champions Program was established in 2011 to serve foster care youth and alumni at the UW. It has since expanded to include students who experienced unaccompanied homelessness as youth.

Care Package Community

Supporting former foster youth

By Chris Talbott

Barbara Lord MacLean, ’80, got her first close look at the UW’s Champions Program, for students who come from foster homes, as a member of the Friends of the Equal Opportunity Program Board of Directors. It changed the direction of her philanthropic life, especially around the holidays.

“They had speakers from the Champions Program, these two young women that were both physics majors, and they came from a background of foster care,” MacLean says. “Their story was, just oh, my God, it just broke your heart and blew your mind how well they had done given their circumstances. After that, I was really, like, ‘Let’s do something!’ ”

The Champions Program, which operates out of the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity, exists to ensure academic success among its nearly 100 students who were in the foster care system or experienced homelessness and to prepare them for life after graduation. The students can access academic mentoring, and help finding housing, clothing and school supplies.

Now the FEOP board president, MacLean makes sure the Champions are in the thoughts of the board members—and her extended circle of friends—during holiday breaks, when the students need it most. In December, the FEOP and the University District Rotary Club teamed up to provide care packages during exams and to stock a pantry to provide food security while the campus is on break.

Exam week and the holidays are difficult under any circumstances, let alone during a pandemic. While most students have a family or guardians to help them through tough times, many Champions participants, who leave the foster care system at age 18, don’t have the same resources. The hope, says the Rotary’s Jeff Werthan, was “just to make finals week a little bit easier and less stressful.”

The resource drive matched the goals of the Rotary’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Peacebuilder committees. After meeting with UW administrators to figure out what was needed most, Rotary members went on a holiday shopping spree. “And all four of

BARBARA LORD MACLEAN us wound up going shopping at Costco to purchase mostly food,” Werthan says, “but also hygiene products.” Rotary hopes to continue to work with OMA&D on projects, Werthan says.

Engagement can become addictive—just like the treats MacLean now makes for the students each year with the help of a growing team of bakers. The former Boeing manager called upon family and friends who like to bake. This year they made nearly two dozen cookies for each Champion participant. “And they loved them,” she says. “It doesn’t seem like much, because it’s just cookies, but they were so excited. We had 19 bakers, including me and my sister. Thirteen of us were retired from Boeing. The others were friends I grew up with. And everybody was so enthusiastic. So on both sides it seems like a huge success, right? It’s just a morale booster.”

If you want to learn more about the Champions Program or make a gift through your estate, please clip out and mail back this insert. You can also contact Daya Terry at wmnterry@uw.edu or 206-616-2492.

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