Mount Pleasant Area Diversity Group works for acceptance
No two people are the exact same.
People have differences, whether they be skin color, religion, sexuality or everyday likes and dislikes.
They’re differences the Mount Pleasant Area Diversity Group have embraced over the last 15 years, and perhaps under the radar of most Central Michigan University students.
The 16-member group is very passionate about the things they do and what they stand for, said Geni Peterson, treasurer of the MPADG.
“We are a community group aiming to educate and promote diversity of all types, not only cultural, institutional or sexual. We promote understanding an acceptance of all people”, Peterson said.
Peterson has been a member of the group for nearly three years and was introduced to the group by the co-founder Carol Richardson, Academic Affairs special projects director at CMU.
Audra Daniels, a CMU alumna who works at the Listening Ear Crisis Center, became co-chair of the group and is trying to involve the community in MPADG’s efforts.
“This year’s goal is to do volunteering,” Daniels said. “We help sister groups that have the same idea’s to better help them in their goals and mission as well.”
The group is assisting the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and the Michigan Roundtable, focusing on promoting and educating people of all types about understanding and acceptance, Daniels said. The group also serves as a mediator and educational service to the community on certain issues.
If there are any discrepancies within the community such as hate crimes, or anything else of that nature, the victim’s or community members come to this group to not only report what goes on, but to receive help and support, Daniels said.
The group reports the issue to the Human Rights Commission, Peterson said. They have local lawyers in the area who work with them as well in efforts to solve these types of problems.
“I have always been interested in making sure that all people are being treated fairly”, said Sister Margaret “Meg” Majewski, a former CMU professor and one of the group’s members original members.
The group looks to plan more activism within the community. Right now their main focus is to educate younger people — their primary goal is to attend different high schools and junior high’s in the area to spread the word of acceptance and understanding, Daniels said.
