Proclamation Honoring Gerardo Barragan for His Service to East Palo Alto WHEREAS, Gerardo Barragan was born on May 5, 1969, in Michoacan, Mexico and came to East Palo Alto in the early 1990’s where he began working at Links to Positive People, a drug and alcohol program in East Palo Alto, CA. First as a receptionist with very limited English, he quickly moved up to outreach worker; and WHEREAS, Gerardo took on the challenge of working in the field of recovery because he wanted to help people and, in 1994, he became a part of a mission to provide services to people of color and to address the need for recovery in the East Palo Alto community. He was inducted as an “Honorary Board Member” of Free at Last and quickly rose through the ranks to serve in almost every position in the agency; and WHEREAS, he returned to school to further his education and graduated from Menlo College with a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts in 1998, maintaining a 4.0 grade average and awarded Outstanding Scholastic Achievement each of those years; and WHEREAS, Gerardo has served on many committees in the community, advocating services for the youth, working as a translator for the Latino community, mentoring youth as well as the elderly who cannot speak for themselves, and was on the first task force for the AIDS Committee, instrumental, along with Priya Haji, David Lewis, and others, with organizing the annual AIDS march in the East Palo Alto community; and WHEREAS, among the many awards he has received over the years are: 1997 East Palo Alto Teen Home Positive Image Award, 2005 Awarded Leadership in the Latino Community Award by the Latino Student Union at Menlo College, 2014 San Mateo County Mental Health and Substance Abuse Recovery/David Lewis Award, 2014 Service Award for 20 Years with Free at Last, and 2019 Award from the Free at Last Board of Directors for Perseverance in Maintaining Free at Last as an agency; and
WHEREAS, Gerardo chose to help people no matter who they were and advocated for a Spanish speaking program for addicts and alcoholics called The Animo Program which brought many in the Latino community into recovery; and WHEREAS, Gerardo is currently retiring from the position of Executive Director at Free at Last after serving in every office in the agency from Chief Operating Officer to finance, outreach, custodian, gardener, counselor, mentor, electrician, and plumber over the years. We appreciate Gerardo with all our hearts and soul. By sacrificing precious time with his family including daughter Ixchel Barragan, his dedication kept the agency afloat during hard times. We salute him and welcome him into the world of retirement, knowing that this man will never stop helping others or giving back to a community that he so loves.
NOW, THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Ruben Abrica, Mayor of East Palo Alto, along with the City Council, do hereby deem it an honor and pleasure to extend this proclamation honoring Gerardo Barragan for his service to East Palo Alto and with best wishes for many more happy, productive years.
Dated: April 19, 2022
Ruben Abrica, Mayor