I can’t remember a time when things have been more on fire around here. Circulation this year is up by 17 percent and we haven’t even hit our busy season yet, and it seems like every time I talk to someone about Real Change, they tell me how much their vendor means to them and how looking forward to each new issue of the paper has become a part of their lives.

We recently added a new AmeriCorps volunteer to the vendor staff and a Jesuit Volunteer Corps person to the organizing staff, and brought in a new volunteer manager and office manager to boot. The front office is buzzing with new energy, and the editorial room has an electric feel to it these days as well.

Our focus has been on listening to the vendors and building a new vehicle for community activism on homelessness, poverty, and growing inequality that offers a new space for cross-class organizing. Real Change is building for power and creating something new and exciting. We’re not quite sure where the work is going, but this we know for sure: Something powerful is happening, and we want you to be a part of it.

We’d like you to count yourself among our 500 closest friends by attending the Real Change Thirteenth Anniversary Breakfast on Wed., Oct. 24, 7:30 a.m. at the Westin Hotel. Tickets are $60. RSVP now and tell your friends. This is a great opportunity to experience the Real Change community in action, and hear our inspiring keynote speaker Cecile Andrews discuss how social movements are born of relationships.

For more information, email RC13@realchangenews.org, or call (206) 441-3247 x208.

For daily posts by Tim Harris at http://www.apesmaslament.blogspot.com