now why don't we go from district 6 to district 5. supervisor breed. >> thank you. welcome, everybody. and today i have really the privilege to honor a woman who is not only made history, but she's still making history with her hard work every single day, ms. sandy -- mrs. sandy murry. [cheering and applauding] . ~ >> i want to read a little information about sandy, but i'll start off by saying that usually some people remember when they met a person. i've known sandy for so long that i don't even remember when i met her. but i do remember when i met her husband who signed my paycheck, mr. jeff murry when i was in the mayor's youth employment training program when i was a teen because you always remember the person who

puts that signature on that first paycheck. it gave me a lot of pride. i knew then he was someone special who cared about young people, and clearly that's why you two are together. you continue to make a difference in our community and fight for what's right. and, so, it really is a privilege and my honor to have you here today. sandy retired in december of 2009 as a development director of [speaker not understood] which she actually founded in 1971. not only is it a home for seniors, but they started a meal program where they made sure that seniors received meals every day, not just the residents of kimochi, but folks all over san francisco. sandy has always been committed to seniors, to taking care of people and to making sure that they had a place to call home in the western addition. she served on the western addition citizen advisory committee and we serve

together. there we fought for just really changes to what the western addition had done to the a2 area. she has been fighting that good fight for so many years and one of the -- when i went on to become a member of the san francisco redevelopment agency commission, sandy continued to make those phone calls to make sure that when [speaker not understood] wanted to come into japantown, sandy said that's not an appropriate place [speaker not understood]. we need japantown to be what it is now for the community. we continued to fight, continued to suffer when necessary, and she continued to do the right thing by the community. and i think that's important because sometimes people do things for the kind of attention that it will get you and every single instance, every single occasion she's had to step up to the plate and fight for japantown and fight for the western addition and bring people together and fight for the community, has always

every single time has always been in the best interest of the community. and i know that you don't do this to be honored or to be recognized. you do it because you genuinely love your community. i remember in 2011 when kimochi had -- they were honoring both you and steve makashio for your work with kimochi. they showed some old photographs and i was thinking to myself, wow, she was -- you're still a babe, but you were really hot. [laughter] >> and i was like, ooh, jeff, look at your wife. look at that, no wonder they gave in. [laughter] >> she was a little power house, really effective, really hard core. and it was just really great seeing you in that light because even then you were fighting and marching and doing what's right by the community

and you're doing it even today. you're doing it when you're coming to my office and asking for more support for the japantown task force, and now because of your efforts we have a plan for japantown to preserve japantown, to preserve this cultural heritage for generations to come. it's an important place. we fought side by side when they basically took away my childhood place, the japantown ball. and i'm still bitter, as i always say about losing that incredible place, but we were never turned away. we weren't the best behaving kids, but we were always welcome in japantown bowl. we were always welcome no japantown community and we were always welcome because we have a history of coming and working together. and you have provided the leadership to keep us together, to keep our communities actively engaged in working together, and you realize the importance of taking care of

not just our community in general, but taking care of our most vulnerable residents and that's the senior community. so, i appreciate all of your work which i kind of skipped over. [laughter] >> your work with the health commission, you were served on the health commission. and one of the first [speaker not understood] employment elected to be president of the commission in the city and county of san francisco, that's pretty amazing. i know that you served on the commission of the status of women. i know you've done a lot of great work for san francisco, all centered around health, education, and seniors and making sure you're taking care of folks. your track record is consistent. i don't know what more to say about you and your incredible work other than to say that sandy, we appreciate you. our community is better because you're a part of it. and i just want to take this opportunity to thank you on

behalf of the city and county of san francisco for being such a great inspiration, being such a great leader and continuing through your work to make history in our great city. so, congratulations. (applause) >> supervisor breed, members of the board, dr. emory, head of the department for the center for women and the commission on the status of women, to the other honorees, my best congratulations to each of you. you are an inspiration and i am glad to be in your company. you know, i owe everything to my parents, my late father and my mother who, by the way yesterday, turned 101. (applause) >> she lives in sacramento in her own home.

but they taught me always to remember from where i came, to take care of our elderly, to help your community and to work together. you know, we live in a very amazing city here in san francisco where diversity is obvious. our many neighborhoods have their very distinct characteristics, the different community that promote their many cultures, and more and more women in san francisco taking leadership roles. i want to thank my husband jeff, my two sisters in law who are here today, and my very dear friends who are here today. they are my support system. and thank you, supervisorses, for having this program for women in san francisco ~. (applause) [cheering and applauding]

(applause) >> congratulations, sandy. thank you, supervisor breed. now on to district 4, supervisor tang. >> thank you, president chiu. it's so great to hear about so many of the wonderful women who have come from many great organizations. so, to add to that i'd like to bring up megan agee to the

podium. welcome, megan. (applause) >> so, megan is the executive director currently at the sunset neighborhood beacon center and today she is joined by her parents, her aunt and uncle. so, welcome to the board chamber, as well as staff members from msnbc chris and ruby. so, today i'm really honored to present a commendation to megan. she embodied character, commitment, and courage at msnbc, it offers numerous free high quality program to youth and adults in san francisco's west side every year [speaker not understood]. and in addition to my remarks, we did prepare a few photos to show you some of the work that snbc has engaged in. if sfgov-tv can head over to the laptop, that would be great. thank you.

since 2002 megan has served in numerous roles at msnbc as their safety network community organizer, director of community programs, deputy director and for the past three years as the executive director. msnbc's mission is to provide support and opportunities for youth and adults to ensure their healthy development. they worked really hard to connect people to their passion, potential, and community. under megan's leadership, snbc provides diverse services and programming to sunset families including after school programs, computer technology programs, family support services, and events and celebrations. and the sunset district, we really don't have too many community service providers, but megan's continued commitment to leading snbc and providing programs for youth and families means that children have nutritious snacks after school, that immigrant adults can learn work force computer skills, ask that toddlers and parents can participate in early literacy classes. with megan as its leader and

champion, snbc is able to provide after school programs to over a thousand san francisco youth every single day. megan has helped lead snbc to adapt its existing programs and develop new services to meet local residents needs. for example, the adult evening program -- programs include yoga, water tower painting, computer and technology classes in english and cantonese, knitting and photo shop. the annual events hosted by snbc continue to bring the community together to support these critical programs in the sunset. the sunset [speaker not understood] lights on after school and the annual community film festival all shine a light on what an incredible organization the snbc organization is. we are fortunate to have her as a leader in the community. she help keep motivated and enthusiastic every day. she is known to have an incredible sense of humor and an infectious laugh.

and john burn son, snbc's director of creative arts, he's been is with snbc over 15 years and has known megan since he started in 2002 when you were 23 years old, he had a few words for you. loose ends live in constant fear of megan agee. she is a [speaker not understood]. she has a rare combination of being methodical and being me pathetic. her leadership skill are valuable to so many different endeavors because she empowers others and makes teams stronger. first i just want to really thank you, megan for all your work in the community and i hope that all of you had a great snapshot of just some of the great programming that is involved with snbc. thank you, megan. (applause) >> thank you, supervisor tang. i'd like to start by thanking you who i believe to be really a woman of true character,

courage, and commitment and a real supporter of the city's youth and families, not just in the sunset. it's an honor to receive this recognition from a woman whose abilities and services i so admire. i also want to thank the other members of the board of supervisors, the mayor, the district attorney, and the commission, the department of the status of women for celebrating the efforts of these san francisco women. but i might not yet know the other honorees personally and have heard about them today absolutely blows my mind and confirm that [speaker not understood] group filled with passion and purpose which is why the sunset neighborhood and beacon center is all about. i'm really humbled by this honor because i believe so strongly in the abilities to lead and make a difference in our community don't happen in isolation and other folks here have made that exact pointed to. for me it's all about relationships with others. i see it as my charge to develop real relationships with real people and to not only put forth my best effort in exhibiting honesty, bravery and dedication, but to try to bring

that out and multiply those same qualities in my colleagues, staff, collaboraters, [speaker not understood], and perhaps help them reach further than they thought possible for themselves. and as i leave the sunset neighborhood, the beacon center dedicated to the development of our local youth and families, it's our collective aim to pay forward those same high values for san francisco's next generation. today i want to also thank my husband todd, my parents, my uncle are here, my friends and some of my beloved staff because i saw audrey in the crowd. they are all allies of the the center and allies of mine. [speaker not understood] and who have taught me what character, courage, and commitment really look and feel like. so, thanks, everyone. (applause)

>> thank you, supervisor tang. (applause) >> i have the honor of making the next presentation as the representative of district 3, and let me first start by saying i want to thank and congratulate all of the women leaders today. you are not just great women

leaders, you are tremendous san francisco women lead r. i also should say and i think this is probably the case for all of us here at the board, these selections are incredibly difficult because we have so many women who are amazing leaders in our community. when my staff and i were discussing who we would honor this year, we decided to select based on the issue and the challenge that we have been grappling with as one of the most difficult and ongoing challenges in my district and in our city while i've been serving at the board of supervisors, which is the topic of homelessness. and the person who is making the biggest difference in the area of homelessness in my district who happens to be a woman, i'd like to invite up christie fairchild. christie? (applause) >> so, for those of you who don't know christie, she is the executive director of an incredible organization in the heart of my district, north beach citizens. north beach citizens is a nonprofit organization that has really been tackling

homelessness in a very innovative way. her organization takes clients and who have shown a capacity that they want to really change their lives and contribute to our local neighborhood. the organization gives their clients a nona dress, a voice mailbox, two daily meals, clothing, a library, resource books, advocacy, and a supportive community of their peers as well as helping to create action plans, connecting their clients with appropriate resources and advocating for them. and this is all done by christie and her very small staff. in recent years north beach citizen clients have obtained housing, staved off eviction or returned home to housing. and this has been calculate today save our city close to $5 million. christie, among other things, has served on the implementing council for our city after being invited into that council

by angela alioto, she has served in kas pa its to do what is in the very best of the spirit of the city of st. francis. i want to give one example of something she worked with my office to do ~. she had a 31 year old woman who had struggled for years with mental health issues who had been arrested, who came in through her doors and christie and her staff found that she had been a musician in a prior life and worked with some of my constituents and my office and the san francisco symphony in obtaining a violin to kim noble who was recently profiled by the l.a. times as a woman whose life was completely turned around because of the intervention of north beach citizen. and so, christie, i want to say on behalf of my district, on behalf of our neighborhoods, on behalf of our city, thank you for being one of our treasures, thank you for your leadership. thank you for all that you've done and on behalf of women's history month, congratulations. (applause)

>> thank you, david. you have been such a wonderful partner to us and north beach citizens and thank you to the supervisors, the commission on women for honoring me and my organization, north beach citizens. and again, i say with all honorses, i don't do it alone, i do it with my staff. brandon and theresa and alex and my intern kim and sarah, and we do the best that we can with the resource s that we have with the funding from our city being the street beautification. it is a win/win program for our clients who want a structured program to go back to, clean the streets of north beach. can't be done in those alleys, et cetera. so, i just wanted to say thank you. in honor of the -- reason that i'm here, the women that have backed me for years and who are my mentors, ann hall stead, and jean mill i began, jeanette,

julie christian son, janet crane, [speaker not understood], and just such strong women that have always been the leaders in san francisco, guthie stuart, they give me the impetus to keep going on. i look to them for counsel and i really appreciate and honor them for being part of north beach citizens and it's all about community. so, thank you, david. (applause)

(applause) >> supervisor farrell from district 2. >> thank you, president chiu. i want to similarly echo your comments and congratulate all the women out here today being honored. also, sandy, supervisor breed talked about, i missed that, too. especially because she's out of the room, i was the most behaved kid going there when we were all little. it's not because of me that it shut down, except for maiello bowling scores. colleagues, i get the honor of introducing someone today and honoring someone who has played a central role nationally, not only locally on an issue that we have talked about at the board chambers the laugh year and a half two years. certainly as a parent of three small children means a ton to me, and that's around gun violence ~. so, robin thomas who is here, thank you so much, robin, for being here.

especially for patiently waiting as we ticked down the order here. whoever the honoree is for district 1, thanks for hanging around, too. but robin is the executive director of the law center to prevent gun violence and has held that position for the past eight years. (applause) >> this is a national nonprofit based here in san francisco and the only national law center dedicated to providing legal expertise on america's gun laws and second amendment litigation and playing a critical role as a leader in the movement to prevent gun violence. robin is a duke university graduate. graduate of the university of miami school of law. but also district 2 resident and a mother of two children. obviously this theme we talked about this month is courage, character, and commitment. and i chose robin in particular because fighting for gun violence in our country, it seems to be easy to do here in san francisco comparatively, but to do it nationally really does require all of those characteristics. robin has worked tirelessly on the development of state and

local gun laws throughout our country, testified in numerous public hearings, look her up on the internet you can see you testify in front of so many committees. and it's just amazing the work that you've done. just to let everyone knowv what this center does, it was founded in 1993 by attorneys after the tragic shooting in downtown san francisco, 101 california that took eight lives. i think a lot of us who were here then remember very, very well. and spent the last 21 years developing smart legal solution to address the consequences of gun violence nationwide. rigorous tracking on gun laws and second amendment litigation across our country. educates the public by making complex legal and policy issues understandable which i can attest to being on her website. providing legal and in-depth expertise on gun laws, and analyzing policy strategies across our country. under her leadership, the law center has seen a 40% increase in its budget over the past eight years which has provided countless more hours of legal

support to legislators, activists and medium in search for common sense solution to gun violence. about a year ago we all voted on unanimously passed a few resolutions. i remember introducing after the sandy hook elementary tragedy, we wanted to support secretary feinstein [speaker not understood], and the san diego promise to do everything we can to prevent gun violence across our country. congress can't even pass a background check legislation despite the fact that 90% of americans are in favor of it. and since new town, there have been 44 school shootings across our country ~. every day in this country we lose 34 americans to gun violence including eight children and teenagers. and we've seen the injustice of the nra backed stand your ground laws in over 22 states that have those laws on the books. and we need people like robin

to continue to fight for us, fight for our families, and we all deserve to live in communities free from gun violence and the fear of that for our children as well. robin, i really want to thank you for all of your efforts on behalf of san francisco families, but for representativing our city on the national stage to really tell people what we stand for, but also fighting for a value and an issue that he we all care about and have talked about for so long. and thank you for being just an awesome district 2 resident. so, thank you for being here. (applause) >> thank you, mark. and thank you so much to the board of supervisors for having this day to recognize women in our community. it's really inspiring to hear the stories of what women are doing in our community who take on so many difficult issues and so many issues that require the hope and faithfulness [speaker not understood]. there are problems that aren't going to be solved overnight. they're issues that we have to

be commit today change over time and what that means and what that takes. it is a very challenging issue to deal with on the national level. 30,000 people are killed, 100,000 shot every year in this country, and almost nothing is being done. but one of the things that helps me to be able to do it and to keep the faith is getting to work with city councils like this one. having the opportunity to work with courageous leaders who aren't intimidated by the threats of special interests who have done cutting edge work to address this problem. we've worked with the board of supervisors in the past to introduce really innovative legislation that then has led the way to innovative legislation in the state of california and california has really created a model of what is possible when there is political will and there is courage in the political arena. and gun violence in california has dropped by 56% in the last 20 years that we have been doing this work. so, that's a really hopeful thing to realize and something that really keeps us going even when we hit against all those obstacles. obviously it's still not enough

because people are dying every day and when sandy hook happened i think we all for a moment had to stop and realize what's really at stake here. i have a seven-year old so for me it really always has been personal, and became even more personal. i certainly am not giving up and i know that this courageous group of legislators is not going to give up. and i think inevitably over time this is a problem that does have solutionses and we know what those solutions are and we're absolutely committed to making that [speaker not understood] and doing the work. i'm grateful every day i live in this city so when i go to washington and it's difficult and painful, i can come back here where it is a very different reality and where we can talk about those solutions in a really honest and open and i think rational way. so, thank you so much for this honor. thank you for honoring the women in this city and just thank you for being a city that we can be really proud of on this issue. (applause)

>> thank you, supervisor farrell. and our last presentation, certainly not the least, from our district 1 colleague from the richmond, supervisor mar. (applause) >> thank you, chair. nancy fisher rodriguez, the chair of the [speaker not understood] and dr. emilie [speaker not understood] and the whole commission and the staff for bringing this to us

every year. as i struggled with a number of other district 1 richmond district leader and my staff to come up with an honoree, i'll just say i thought about the history of international women's day, march 8 every year, that's coming up on saturday, and the month that's culling that we will be celebrating this whole month, i tried to think of somebody that represented the history of the 105 years celebrating the struggle of women garment workers in new york city in honoring them, but also organizing as a key vehicle for social change. our honoree kind of represents that. as a father, i thought about my struggle on understanding my daughters inequality as a woman and as a girl and a female in society. i think my honoree or our honoree really represents helping men and boys understand

power and how to disrupt patterns of inequality and sexism. and she represents the best of teaching and engaging people for that. i also thought of all the women's organizations and caucuses that emerged from [speaker not understood] committee, organizations like [speaker not understood] or the chinese progressive association which i learned about international women's day or we used to call it international working women's day in the '80s. and i think my honoree represents supporting building up organizations and caucuses of women and alliances with general organizations in challenging institutional secondism. i want to say she is an amazing example of a leader from the richmond district. she is the co-chair of jobs with justice s.f., she is also the co-chair of the women caucus in the