Re: Joani Blank
From: Alice Alexander (aliceanne4gmail.com)
Date: Tue, 6 Aug 2019 12:53:47 -0700 (PDT)
Thank you Ann! I miss Joani too. She was kind and helpful to me and
Coho/US, and challenging too, I liked that.
Joani was amazingly generous in sharing her considerable knowledge and
enthusiasm.
Alice Alexander
Durham Central Park Cohousing

On Tue, Aug 6, 2019 at 3:44 PM Ann Zabaldo <zabaldo [at] earthlink.net> wrote:

> Hello All —
>
> Joani Blank passed away two years ago today.
>
> Who was Joani Blank?
>
> She was quite possibly the all time quintessential Burning Soul in the
> cohousing movement.  Actually,  there have been many all time
> quintessential Burning Souls who forwarded the movement and who have now
> left us.  This is just about one of them.
>
> A “Jewnitarian” by her own description, she lived first at Doyle Street in
> Emeryville, CA and subsequently at Swan’s Market in Oakland, CA.  She
> served on the first CohoUS Board of Directors. She gave the first large 5
> digit donation to the newly formed board.  She was intractably good humored
> and positive as the then new board gathered its sea legs.  Joani
> volunteered her money, time and energy into moving the cohousing football
> forward 10 yards at a time.  Always forward.  With her short, black, before
> it was fashionable purple streaked hair she embodied the values of
> cohousing.  Cooperative yet independent.  Self initiating yet aware of
> others' input.
>
> Joani reached out a hand to many.  Often the outstretched hand had a check
> in it for cohousing groups struggling to get going.  She monitored the
> requests for information that came into the virtual coho national office.
> She often asked me to answer the queries.
>
> Joani believed in collaboration in both life and work.  She was a
> successful business woman who turned her business into a worker’s
> collective selling her interest to her former employees.  She took that
> money and invested in other small businesses.  She was generous and kind
> and completely, unabashedly "out there" when it came to romantic affairs.
>
> I miss you, Joani.  And I’m grateful for the foundation you helped to
> create for all of us out here in cohousing-land.
>
> Best --
>
> Ann Zabaldo
> Takoma Village Cohousing
> Washington, DC
> Member, Board of Directors
> Mid Atlantic Cohousing
> Principal, Cohousing Collaborative, LLC
> Falls Church, VA
> 202.546.4654
>
> I’m …
>
>  “it’s 8:30 pm and you want to start a movie this late?”
>
> … Years Old.
>
> (From a series of DIY embroidery quotes by The Twilight Sewn)
>
>
>
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>
>
>

-- 
Alice Alexander

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