Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Joani Blank

[Ann Zabaldo (zabaldo]

Joani was definitely challenging!  Thanks for your thoughts about one of our 
“elders!”

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)



> On Aug 6, 2019, at 3:53 PM, Alice Alexander <aliceanne4 [at] gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 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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>