Carolyn Sugiyama Classen, a life long Democrat, was born & raised in the State of Hawaii, was a Legislative Aide for U.S. Senator Daniel K. Inouye on Capitol Hill, and practiced law for a while. In Tucson she worked as a tribal staff attorney for the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and later was the Interim Executive Director of the now defunct Domestic Violence Commission. In 2008 she became a “My Tucson” guest columnist for the Tucson Citizen newspaper, then continued blogging for Tucsoncitizen.com for over four and a half years. Her blogsite was entitled “Carolyn’s Community” about community events and some political news, until Gannett Publishing shut down the site on January 31, 2014. She started with Blog for Arizona on Feb. 11, 2014.
Part time she sat as a Hearing Officer in Pima County Consolidated Justice Courts Small Claims Division since April, 2005 for 15 years. She is married to University of Arizona Distinguished Professor Albrecht Classen, a native of Germany. They have one son, who lives in Seattle, WA with his wife and daughter.
She is also the Editor of the Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition website, www.southernazjapan.org (since Jan. 2013).
Starts Friday, May 9 at the Loft Theater, 3233 E. Speedway
Post-film discussion on Friday, May 9 at 7:00pm with Daisy M. Jenkins, executive vice president and Chief Human Resources Officer for Carondelet Health Network, and Barbara Atwood, Mary Anne Richey Professor of Law Emerita and Director of the Family and Juvenile Law Certificate Program at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law.
May 6, 6 to 9 p.m. at La Cocina, 201 N. Court Ave. Tucson
Beading Divas to the Rescue raised $100,000 for animal charities! (Applause!) Come to our party as we give back more to local non profits (501 c3) and to YOU. Fun is the operative word!
3 Free Raffle Drawings
–Win 10% of the evenings net profits (food/drink) provided by La Cocina
–Win the opp to be the June bracelet fundraising organization recipient
–Win bracelets and other prizes!
Imagine yourself in a vat about 7 ft x 7 ft of cold blue/green/orange colored jello, wrestling another human being, in front of a wild crowd of about 400 adults. Well, that was the enthusiastic performance of 9 teams last night at the Slaughterhouse on 1102 W. Grant Rd. (east of the I-10) for the 27th annual Jell-O Wrestling event to benefit SAAF (So. AZ Aids Foundation).
Before and during the matches, little containers (“jello shots”) of lime/orange/strawberry/blackberry jello (with vodka or rum) were sold to the audience. I confess I had at least 3 of them. The fun began with Mistress of Ceremonies DIVA Lucinda Holliday introducing other Divas (including Miss Gay Arizona) who sang throughout the evening, while people donated funds in plastic buckets or fishing nets to SAAF. 9 different teams of two each wrestled from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. along with a live auction of lovely art, gift baskets, restaurant meals, and hotel nights in Mexico. The auctions bids ranged from $20 to $1000, and it was announced that over $50,000 was raised last night.
SAAF Executive Director Wendell Hicks just informed me that the final figure raised was over $56,000.
L-R: Shawn Kaylor (the Tucson Tamale Fairy) , Mia Hansen, Kurt Tallis – before the wrestling match (photo courtesy of Mia)
I’ve been publicizing this wild sounding jello event for several years at Tucsoncitizen.com, but never dared to attend. However, this is the year to go –especially because I know two Tucson friends who will be wrestling at this extravaganza, raising funds for Southern Az Aids Foundation. See information below for these mystery (or mysterious) friends.