Community News
Spanish teaching and more earn annual Chavez award
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Molli K. Fleming received the MEO Inc. Enlace Hispano program’s award during the annual Cesar Chavez luncheon April 2 at MEO’s Family Center in Wailuku.
Enlace Hispano provides services to Hispanics. Fleming helps non-English speaking immigrants by inviting the latter along with her college students to informal get-togethers, where the students practice their Spanish and the Spanish speakers learn English.
“For this and for her many contributions to the Hispanic community, Molli Fleming epitomizes the qualities that Cesar Chavez stood for,” said Sandy Baz, MEO executive director.
The Chavez award is named for the United Farm Workers co-founder, whom the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy described as “one of the heroic figures of our time.” Chavez died in 1993.
The annual award recognizes those who help the Hispanic community in the spirit of Chavez. Past recipients have been MEO employees: Cesar Gaxiola, Silvia Naiberg and Carlos Hernandez.
In accepting the award, Fleming described being a 12-year-old in Southern California who wanted to attend a farm-worker rally where Chavez would be speaking. Her family did not think that was an activity for a child, Fleming said; so the award, “touched a very deep spot in me.”
“It’s been gratifying as a Spanish language teacher to have the major boom in the Hispanic community here,” she said. She added that Maui professionals can participate in the project when they “feel the need to immerse themselves in a nonprofessional environment to improve their language skills.”
She shared credit for the project’s success with Hilde Schapp, an Enlace Hispano case worker who facilitates the gatherings; Ginger Reinke and Annette Dadez, her own former students who volunteer with the project; and Jesus Baldazar, a Hispanic who has done “the bulk of the recruiting” in the community.
Fleming also received a congratulatory resolution from County Council Members Gladys Baisa and Mike Victorino.
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