The Multicultural Club and the Diversity Group have also met to enjoy a meal and games together. “We have vast experiences among our group of seniors at Cedar Community that are unknown and untapped, and we can definitely share our life experiences with the kids,” Bill says. The Diversity Group is growing, and Cedar Community assisted living residents have also shown an interest in getting more involved in the discussions. The group hopes to find a way to include all residents in their meetings, along with the greater community. Members are also interested in fostering all types of diversity in society, including race, culture, sexuality, age, differently-abled, and religious and political traditions. “We believe in diversity. It’s here now and will increase over time,” Bill says. “Whether we promote diversity or just watch it happen, we should prepare for it. We are trying to expand our horizons.”
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We believe in diversity. It’s here now and will increase over time,” Bill says. “Whether we promote diversity or just watch it happen, we should prepare for it. We are trying to expand our horizons.
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Resident shows support in the South during the Civil Rights Movement While Bill Rumpf was a student at the California Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, the school wanted to send volunteers to help during the Selma to Montgomery March, which was a series of civil rights protests in Alabama in March of 1965. This march was an effort to fight for federal voting rights legislation, to protect African-Americans from barriers that prevented them from voting. Bill was one of nearly 40 students supported by the school, who got on a bus and went to Selma, willing to do anything to help. The students put up and took down tents so the marchers could sleep on their four-day, 50-mile journey. Bill also volunteered to help with voter registration in Mississippi the summer before the march. “People came from all over. There was a big push to gather college students to help,” Bill says. The federal Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965.
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