Hi Family and Friends,

For the last 4 years, I have run the Seattle Half Marathon for a cause, and this year, I have chosen the Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project. The race is on Sunday, November 30.  I hope to run it in 1:45  (my personal record and my time last year...my legs are a little doubtful, but I am optimistic), and I hope to raise $800 for the Project along the way.  Please join me (and my 30-year-old hamstrings) in supporting the Project.  Why?

Ever think about who picked your apple?  What kind of home she returned to after the day's work?  What chemicals might have been sprayed on her in the fields?  Fruit and vegetable farming in the U.S. largely would disappear without the huge labor force that migrant farm workers provide. However, many of these workers are chronically exploited, their human rights ignored.

 Farm workers often don't seek help because they don't know where to turn or because they're afraid. When they do assert their rights--knowing they risk being blacklisted, deported or fired--there aren't enough advocates to represent them. This "justice gap" is an enormous challenge in our state and throughout the country.

I serve on the board of the Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project, a volunteer-led effort housed at LAW Fund that assists farm workers in their efforts to enforce their right to fair, dignified, humane and safe working and living conditions.

Our Project is a simple and cost-effective way to help thousands of farm workers each harvest season and improve the lives of their families and communities.

We deploy law students to work alongside experienced advocates to inform farm workers of their rights and responsibilities and provide assistance on matters involving immigration, environmental justice, civil rights, payment of wages, worker safety and health, housing and consumer rights.

In 2005, my first year of law school, I was a Laurel Rubin Fellow in the Tri Cities.  I did outreach to thousands of farmworkers around the state.  I think that you would have been shocked at the living and working conditions I saw; I was.  I got to work on an important guestworker case that summer that ultimately successfully held an exploitative farm labor contractor liable for his abuses.  The case was also the inspiration for the article I wrote for the Pacific Rim Journal at UW.  Because my fellowship was funded, I didn't have to apply for a grant from the Public Interest Law Association (the group at UW that funds public interest interns), which left money for more of my classmates to do other important kinds of public interest work.  This year, as an attorney at Columbia Legal Services, I may have the opportunity to supervise a Laurel Rubin Fellow in my office in Olympia.

Please join me in making a tax-deductible charitable contribution to support the Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project. Together, we can make a significant difference to these members of our community who do the hazardous work that puts food on our tables.  Any amount helps!

If you prefer to send a check directly to the Project, please make it out and mail to: The Laurel Rubin Farm Worker Justice Project, c/o LAW Fund, 1325 Fourth Ave., Suite 1335, Seattle, WA 98101.

Thank you for your consideration!  Andrea