Remembering Shon Seeley
|
Dear PASA Members & Friends,
More than a week has passed since we first heard news of the tragic accident that took the life of Shon Seeley, and I have to say, our PASA emotional flags are still at half-mast. It seems unreal to us that this could have happened, and particularly given the context in which it happened. If you did not see last week’s email on the subject, you can read it here.
 In contrast to the sadness, we have also been comforted to hear from so many members, and many folks who are not members, expressing remorse and encouragement at this difficult time. I know the Seeley family also wishes to express their profound gratitude for the way their friends and neighbors have folded around them.
At the request of the family, PASA has established a special fund known as The Shon Seeley Legacy Fund for Sustainable Farming Education into which contributions may be received to celebrate the life of Shon through support of educational programming at PASA specific to the farming principles held dearly by him: livestock grazing, sustainable beef & dairy production, value-added dairy processing, livestock genetic preservation, native pasture grass management & weed identification. This is a tremendous gesture on the part of the whole Seeley clan at a time of great sorrow, to be thinking so promptly of how to make this loss of theirs into a gain for many generations of sustainable farmers to come.
And now it’s our turn. Even the rumor of this fund has already resulted in several donations, and we are hoping that with your help, we can generate a tidal wave of caring and support that will help, in however limited a fashion, to replace the life of Shon with a permanent marker of his impact on the world. This would truly provide a symbol of comfort to Jess and the entire Seeley family, and something that will make Shon’s young children very proud in the years to come.
So please, consider making a tax-deductible gift at this time to The Shon Seeley Legacy Fund, and even more, we implore you to help get the word out about this tragic turn of events, and the opportunity we all have to make a difference in the world, through your own social networks, listservs, family, friends and colleagues, by sending them to this web page, where they can also learn about how to make a contribution directly to the memorial fund set up to benefit the children. If you have not already, you may also wish to send a message of condolence to the family in the way indicated at the bottom of the same web page.
Those of you who know our friends at Milky Way Farm will have no trouble believing that they are already thinking about how to make some good out of this very bad situation. What they have achieved over the past 50 years can only be fully understood in the context of the thousands of smaller dairy farms that have been lost in Pennsylvania over just the last decade. As our president, Kim Seeley had always been the first to call out the forces that have profited from the decline of small farms everywhere. Now it’s up to us to be first to stand behind him and the whole Seeley family to show that their success has been no fluke, but represents the potential of the new food system we will continue to build.
From all of us, thanks so much for your thoughts, prayers and kindness at this difficult time.
Sincerely,
Brian
Brian Snyder
Executive Director |
|
|
|
Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture
PO Box 419
Millheim, PA 16854
814.349.9856
www.pasafarming.org
Promoting profitable farms that produce healthy food for all people
while respecting the natural environment.
You are receiving this email because of your association with PASA. To ensure that you continue to receive these emails and other updates from PASA, become a member.
  
|
|
