[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 153 (Wednesday, October 10, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2109]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         TRIBUTE TO THE ORANGE GROVE MONTHLY METING OF FRIENDS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, October 10, 2007

  Mr. SCHIFF. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the Religious 
Society of Friends upon the 100th anniversary of the Orange Grove 
Monthly Meeting of Friends in Pasadena, California.
  The Orange Grove Monthly Meeting of Friends was founded in 1907 by a 
group of twenty Eastern Quakers who had moved to Pasadena. Quakers have 
played leading roles in working for peace and an end to war, promoting 
racial and gender equality, and supporting environmental and other 
social justice causes. After World War I, the Meeting members supported 
the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which engaged in post 
war relief efforts in Western Europe and Russia, and also helped 
establish AFSC's Pacific Coast branch.
  During World War II, the Meeting house served as a hostel for 
Japanese-Americans being sent to internment camps, and aid was sent to 
those already interned. The Meeting members provided hospitality and 
financial support to area conscientious objectors and their families, 
and after the end of the war, hosted families displaced by the war and 
its aftermath.
  Meeting members have frequently led the way in civil rights and 
social justice movements. Meeting members took part in efforts to 
desegregate the Pasadena school system, participated in freedom rides 
in the South and attended the Selma, Alabama protests.
  The Orange Grove Monthly Meeting of Friends founded educational 
institutions that provide a nurturing educational environment for 
children. Pacific Ackworth Friends School (1942) and Pacific Oaks 
School (1945) were established by Meeting parents. In 1961, Mara Moser, 
an Orange Grove Friends member, established Mothers' Club to support 
families of men in prison. Mothers' Club later evolved into a child 
development and family center serving low-income families.
  Members of the Orange Grove Monthly Meeting of Friends are active 
participants in the community. Meeting members routinely provide dinner 
for the homeless at Union Station in Pasadena, participate in many 
prison visitation programs and allow the Meeting house to be used by 
local groups for activities such as a tutoring program for elementary 
school children.
  It is my pleasure to honor the Orange Grove Friends Meeting of 
Pasadena on its 100th anniversary of dedicated service to the 
community. I ask all Members to join me in commending their efforts.

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