The SECA Commission convened on Saturday, November 15, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. to receive public comments regarding grant eligibility criteria and to hear presentations from 86 applicants seeking SECA funding for calendar year 2026. The commission welcomed new member Linda Kuhn, approved the October 15 minutes, and noted that funding allocation decisions will be made at the subsequent meeting on December 11. No funding recommendations or allocations were determined during this session.
Good morning. I'd like to call the SECA Commission meeting of Saturday, November 15th, 2025, to order at 9 a.m. May I have a roll call, please? Broadhead. Here. Gadden. Kuhn. Myers. Prasad. Sacaria. So here. Sayed. Zards. Student repamato. Student repnagium. We do have a quorum. Thank you. I would also like to introduce our city staff members. We have Jake Fiedler, who is the special events coordinator and staff liaison to the commission. Miranda Barfus, community grants manager, and Melanie Marcordis, Director of Community Services. Our next order of business is public forum. As we start the public forum, I'd like to remind everyone of the citizen participation rules in the city's municipal code for speaking at meetings. Speakers will be called on to speak in the order they signed up on the sign-up sheet. And this is not for not for applicants. This is for people who are not applicants but are here to have something to say. Each speaker will have three minutes to make their comments. Speakers are asked to present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner. Speakers should stay on topic and be cognizant of their words. Personal attacks on board members, staff, or other speakers, or members of the audience are not allowed. If inappropriate language or comments are expressed during this meeting, you will be asked to stop commenting immediately. Also, for audience members, there is no cheering and no jeering. Actions such as applauding, cheering, or booing during or at the conclusion of any remarks made by any speaker are not allowed. And if we could please call the first speaker. But I have been a resident of 32 years in Napravo, but I grew up in the area. I was lived nearby. My kids were raised in the area, and we all had the benefit of the amazing public art and the cultural events in this community. Particularly and selfishly, I want to thank the committee last year for funding our shared home mural, which is right over there on the Naperville Township building. We did get funds last year. Our shared home mural was a community-inspired, community-driven, community created, and community-implemented project. Multiple cultures were represented in the creation of that art. And now we can all celebrate that art. It was an amazing opportunity for us to use that same, the funds you gave us, which created the frame and the mural affixed to it, to now in the future change out the mural and use the existing frame with your previous thing used money and put different murals on that. So I thank you for that amazing opportunity. I commend these groups who put these programs on for free because of the funding, open to all, and they encourage sharing and learning of multiple cultures so we can learn and and that's a pivotal for this community. I I want to stand in particular acknowledgement of the day of the dead um celebration that I understood nothing about. I didn't understand why we're celebrating dead people, but that was well attended, completely apolitical, family-oriented, respectful presentation was very educational. Those are the types of events that enrich this community, well spending our community resources. The more we I feel, and I think many people agree with me. The more we learn about others who don't look like us and pray like us and drive dress like us and speak like us, the more we recognize how similar we are. Um the more we can embrace our shared humanity.