August 30, 2009...A two-fold Post...Happy Birthday Amit...Farmer's Market Worries

First, I want to take a moment to remember Amit's Birthday. Today, August 30, Amit would have turned 34 years old. He was a good man, he had a smile and a kind word for everyone and always wanted to leave a person having a better day then before they met him. He has left our lives better for having known him. Happy Birthday Amit, Look out for your angels and know you are always in our hears and minds. *****
I also need to take a moment to discuss a very serious matter, the Farmer's Market. As some of you may or may not know, City Council members and business members of the Garden Walk area, as well as the Douwntown Chico Business Association, are attempting to move the Saturday Chico Farmer's Market to 4th and Flume...Not only is this location poor for traffic and parking, it is significantly smaller. Estimates show that many of the farmer's would have to park elsewhere and haul all their produce to their market spot AND the market would have to eliminate at least 15 Food Vendors. If this relocation takes place, 15 food vendors will be eliminated from the market, by my estimates, that means a majority of the food vendors will lose their place in the market. Fifteen families will lose a significant means of income that supports their families. I worry for Deepika and how she or any other food vendor will be able to make ends meet if their place in the Saturday Market was stolen away by the DCBA and Gardenwalk businesses.

Below is the text of a flyer that was put out to the Saturday Farmer's Market vendors and MOST IMPORTANTLY, there is a list of the Chico City Council member's email addresses and their PO Box. I am begging all of you to please pass this information on to Everyone you know. This attempt to relocate the Saturday Farmer's Market, which has been in the same location for going on 30 YEARS, is a BAD Move. It will be bad for the market organization, it will be bad for the Chico downtown businesses that benefit from the farmer's market traffic, it will be bad for all teh farmer's market vendors who will lose traffic to their booths, and it will be absolutely terrible if not devastating for those vendors that are eliminated from the market altogether. PLEASE HELP! Pass this information on and write the Chico City Council and tell them what a terrible idea this move will be to everyone.

******

Saturday, August 29, 2009 Chico CA The Board of Directors of the Chico Certified Farmer's Market has requested that the City of Chico continue efforts to improve the safety, expansion, and the functionality of the Saturday Farmer's Market currently located in Municipal Parking Lot 1.

We have discusses the possible move from Municipal Parking Lot 1 to the City Hall Municipal Parking Lot at our August 1, 2009 board of director's meeting and at many board of director's meetings over the last couple of years. Our current position is that such a move would not be in the best interests of our farmers, customers, or the Chico community.

As you may have notices our Saturday Chico Farmer's Market has received a great deal of attention in the last couple of months as we are being asked to once again consider moving our Saturday CHico Farmer's Market to the City Municipal Parking Lot located at 4th and Flume. The proponents of this move are the Garden Walk Businesses, Downtown Chico Business Association (DCBA), and City Council members Andy Holcombe and Jim Walker. The Garden Walk businesses believe that we are taking their parking lot and making it unavailable for their customers. The DCBA, Andy Holcombe, and Jim Walker agree with the Garden Walk businesses and believe that a more appropriate place for our market would be the City Hall Municipal Parking Lot.

In all fairness to the opponents to our current market location, our management team and board members have extensively measured and reviewed the City Hall Municipal Parking Loat and found that in a best case scenario that we would be able to accomodate a total of 71 farmers and 13 of them would not be able to have their trucks in their space with them and would have to park their vehicles either on teh street or in Parking Lot 1. We are currently accomodating 85 vendors in our current location, which means that 14 of our current vendors would not be able to participate any longer in Saturday market in downtown Chico. It is unknown at this time who the 14 vendors would be or how that would be determined.

Our organization and members have a lot of risk here if we are forced to move from our current location. 1. Losing the visibility from 2nd street (loss of present traffic coming to market and more importantly, loss of future traffic), 2. Loss of produce sales due to public not aware of move, 3. Loss of revenue to the market organization.

Our Saturday Chico market will celebrate its 30th year next year in downtown Chico. Our market has become a great success story and a Saturday morning downtown Chico destination due to this very centralized and visible location, teh participation of our members, and the Chico community.

Please consider contacting the Chico City Council and let them know how important this market and its location is to your livelihood and the the future growth of our Saturday Market. THe following is the address for the Chico City Council and their council email links:

Ann Schwab (mayor) aschwab@ci.chico.ca.us
Tom Nickell (vice mayor) tnickell@ci.chico.ca.us
Mary Flynn mflynn@ci.chico.ca.us
Scott Gruendl sgruendl@ci.chico.ca.us
Andy Holcomb aholcomb@ci.chico.ca.us
Larry Wahl lwahl@ci.chico.ca.us
Jim Walker jwalker@ci.chico.ca.us

Chico City Council
P.O. Box 3420
Chico, CA 95927

Thank you on behalf of the Chico Certified Farmer's Market Board of Directors and your market management for your time and consideration of this important matter to your organization.
Terry Givens
Market Manager
*********************************************************************

Tell Chico City Council why this attempt to move the Chico Saturday Farmers' Market is a bad idea:

1. Depriving at least 14 or 15 families of a prime source of income and means of supporting their families. They would be deprived of a segment of their livihood.

2. Loss of traffic in general to the market would result in loss of income to every market vendor that depends on this Farmer's Market for their livelihood.

3. Loss of visibility will result in further loss of income to vendors

4. Loss of traffic as a result of the public not aware of the move and/or where the market moved to, again, further loss of income to all market vendors.

5. This move is bad for downtown Chico as well. The farmer's market brings hundreds of people to downtown Chico. These customers not only shop at the farmer's market, by virtue of being downtown and close to the downtown Chico businesses, frequent these businesses as well, this includes the Garden Walk businesses. If you take away the farmer's market, you take away many of the customers/patrons of the downtown Chico businesses.

6. This is bad for the community. The Chico Saturday Farmers' Market is an opportunity for the Chico community to come together, share food, share ideas, share conversations, share political ideas, bring comfort and solace to those who have suffered losses in the community. Moving the Farmer's Market and eliminating market vendors is a bad move, for everyone.

Please pass this on and help save and protect the Chico Saturday Farmer's Market location and all the vendors that depend on this market for their livelihoods, their families.

Thank you.

August 9th, 2009...Happy Birthday Jevesh!

Today marks the 8 month birthday for Jevesh. Since December, this child has had to face more tragedy and trials than many will suffer in a lifetime. After multiple surgeries and procedures and spending half of his first year of life in the hospital, this child continues to be a miracle fighter. He smiles, he laughs, he doesn't know he is sick. There are still many hurdles ahead and there are good days and not so good days, but he is a fighter. He has his mother's strength and his father's spirit and together, we hold on to the faith that he will continue to beat the odds.

Little one, you are blessed and you are a blessing. You are loved by many. May your health be strong, your pain be less, your strength be boundless, your happiness and joy overflowing, and your blessings infinite. You hold a special place in more than a few people's hearts and you and your mom were your father's heart and life.

August 8th, 2009

I wanted to first take the opportunity to thank all those that were able to make it to the market, share some cake, some mango tea, and many kind words. Your thoughts and prayers are so very much appreciated as life moves forward and we continue to cope with this loss. We do not forget, and the pain does not go away, but each day, we try and remember more of the happier memories and not be sad over them, but instead smile. Jevesh carries in him the beautiful smile and great spirit of his mother and father and you cannot help but smile yourself and feel your heart swell in happiness to see this child, after all he has been through, continue to be strong, to laugh, to smile, and to live each day, not knowing what he has been through or that he is even sick.

The following video is a rememberance video of Amit and celebration of Jevesh.

August 7th, 2009

This poem is Amit...it embodies who he was and why we are better for having had him touch our hearts and our lives...

The
Optimist's Creed

Be so
strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.

Talk
health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you met.

Make
all your friends feel there is something in them.

Look
at the sunny side of everything.

Be as
enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your
own.

Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the
greater achievements of the future.

Give
everyone a smile.

Spend
so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize
others.

Be
too big for worry and too noble for anger.

-Christina D. Larsen

August 6th 2008 - August 6th 2009

As I sit here waiting for the words to enter my brain for today's blog...one of the hardest I will ever have to write, I am overwhelmed with emotion...Saddness, grief, anger, none of which Amit would want me or any of us to feel and yet I cannot help it...To have lost a friend, for Deepika to have lost the love of her life, for Jevesh to lose his father, for Amit's family to suffer this loss, for our community to endure this tragedy...and not have some of these emotions...I wish I was a better person, alas, I am human.

Amit did not die from cancer, a bad diet, a fluke medical condition...Amit died because one man made a choice, a selfish choice, a choice that was NO accident...A man CHOSE to drink and drive, chose not to get a safe ride home, chose to talk on a cell phone while driving, chose to drive at excessive speed, chose to drive while over three times the legal limit, chose to drive the wrong way on the road...Drunk Driving is NEVER an accident...it is a choice...and as far as I am concerned, it is Murder. The fact that there are people who have committed quote unquote "victimless crimes" and been punished more severly than a man who made not one, but a seried of horrifically bad choices, is not just tragic, it is sickening and despicable. The man who murdered Amit was likely home with his children long before Jevesh ever came home to a house without his father!

When we lost Amit, our hearts absolutely broke...I do not only mean that metaphorically, I mean our hearts hurt...we felt the physical ache of a heart that was irreparably broken...our hearts hurt! Our souls Ached! Our minds screamed out in absolute agony...Praying every moment of every day that this whole tragedy was some terrible nightmare, that it wasn't real, that at any moment, Amit would come walking through that door to greet Deepika with a huge smile on his face, greeting her with a "helloo honey!" and a kiss...but he hasn't, he won't, he Never will...

I encourage each and every one of you to stand up and make the choice to have your voice heard, to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH! How many more loved ones have to die? How many more families and friends must live with how such a tragedy devastates their lives? WHEN do we as a community decide what is most important?

On August 6th, 2008, Amit fell victim to a preventable tragedy...every year THOUSANDS more join that group of victims, and TOO MANY times...Too Many Times! the perpetrators of these crimes are barely punished, if at all, while Deepika, other wives, husbands, fathers, mothers, and so on, are sentenced to life, life without parole, life without their loved ones, life filled with coping with that loss, that pain, that heartache, a life sentence without their loved ones by their side, a life without their friend, husband, father. On August 6th, 2008, it was Amit who fell victim...tomorrow, next month, next year, maybe even tonight, you or one of your loved ones could be next. DON'T WAIT to take action because you find yourself having one more personal reason to care about this matter... Do something NOW, please do not wait for someone else you care about to fall victim to another person's selfish choice.

One year....in one year we have experienced such pain, such sorrow, such utter and complete heartbreak....There are no words that can ever truly express the loss that such a tragedy brings to so many. Today, we want to celebrate the wonderful life of an amazing man who touched so many lives. To some he was the "Indian food guy," to others he was that smiling man who just made their day with a kind word and a smile and just by being nice, to others he was a friend, a brother, a cousin, an uncle, and to Deepika, he was her loving husband and best friend...and he would have been an adoring father to Jevesh...

We have been blessed to have had what little time we could with Amit and we pray that we will be blessed with a long life with Jevesh. Their souls bring joy to our hearts and we are better for having them in our lives. I know that I am surely a better person for having had the opportunity to call Amit my friend, and it is an honor, privilege, and blessing to have Deepika and Jevesh in my life. My heart both aches and is filled with joy and I hope you will join me in celebrating the lives of these wonderful people.

We will have a small memorial table set up at the Saturday Chico Farmer's Market. We will have a memory book where people can share their memories of Amit, well wishes for Deepika and Jevesh, or share pleasant thoughts and blessings. Please pass the word around.

Thank you all for your kind words, thoughts, prayers, and friendship to Deepika and Jevesh...you may never know how much it has meant to them.

August 5th, 2009

May Our Friendship Last Forever

May our friendship last forever;
May I sail upon your sea.
May we go through life together;
May there always be a "we."
May I be your endless sky;
May you breathe my gentle air.
May younever wonder why
Each time you look for me, I'm there.

May we be for each a smile
Like the warm, life-giving sun;
Yet when we're in pain awhile,
May our suffering be one.

May we share our special days,
The happiness of one for two;
And if we must go separate ways,
Let my love remain with you.

-Nicholas Gordon

August 4th, 2009

For Deepika, For Deepika's Mom, For Amit's mother....

Everybody knows that a good mother gives her child a feeling of trust and stability. She is their earth. She is the one they can count on for the things that matter most of all. She is their food and their bed and the extra blanket when it grows cold in the night; she is their warmth and their health and their shelter; she is the one they want to be near when they cry. She is the only person in the whole world in a whole lifetime who can be these things to her children. There is no substitute for her. Somehow even her clothes feel different to her children's hands from anybody else's clothes. Only to touch her skirt or her sleeve makes a troubled child feel better.

-Katherine Butler Hathaway

August 3, 2009

Remember

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go, yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

you tell me of our future that you planned;

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for awhile

And afterwards remember, do not grieve;

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

-Christina Rossetti

August 2, 2009

...friends are quiet angels who sit on our shoulders and lift our wings when we forget how to fly... -Unknown




Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some stay for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same... -Flavia Weedn




Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom... -Marcel Proust

Some friends come and go like a season...Others are arranged in our life for a reason... -Sharita Gadison

I believe in angels, the kind heaven sends. I am surrounded by angels, but I call them my best friends... -Unknown

If I could reach up and hold a star for every time you made me smile, the entire evening sky would be in the palm of my hand... -Unknown

August 1, 2009...A week of pics

To celebrate Jevesh's 8 month birthday and remember and celebrate the life of Amit, taken from us a year ago, I will post photos every day from today through next Sunday. Please take a moment to pass on well wishes, share your memories, and pass the word to others for them to do the same, here on the blog.

We love you Deepika, We love you Jevesh, We miss you Amit.