Wells Fargo Round Up in Walnut Creek,CA
From Gina Ruth in Walnut Creek
After being told by everyone at my school that no one would show up to a protest on prom day, the Walnut Creek action ended up having the most successful turn out of any wells fargo action in the bay area. It began when groggy high school students began to congregate at the wells fargo in Walnut Creek, and Tracy from RAN gave a little speech about why we were there.
Although none of us had the cojones to wear the cowboy hats, we all got really into the flyering and passing out stickers and bandanas, especially Jeremy Wolfe who is the youth outreach coordinator for the Lamorinda democratic club. Jeremy made a connection with a woman pushing a stroller who happenned to be the assistant to Congressman Miller. We told her about the terrible things Wells Fargo was doing to the environment, and she gave us her card and suggested we call her if we ever wanted to try to get a legislation passed to end dirty banking.
I wanted to start chanting to give us a little bit more of a presence, but we all agreed that we would get a better response if we weren’t shouting in their ears.
Most of the people we talked to on that quiet sunny morning were employees of Wells Fargo. Many of them informed us that dirty banking isn’t the only unethical thing Wells Fargo is doing.
We also talked to a lot of mothers and fathers carrying babies and chatting with energetic kids on their arms. Many of the families were happy to be informed and were concerned about the environmental issues because of the health risks they could pose to their kids if they continued.
All in all it was a fabulous way to spend earth day, and I think we all had a great time learning about the issues and chatting it up before prom. It was a lot of our first actions and it was a very positive experience for everyone involved.
3 Responses to “Wells Fargo Round Up in Walnut Creek,CA”
Leave a Reply
All comments offered in the spirit of civil conversation are welcome! Commercial spam, obscenity and other rude behavior are not, and will be removed. Valid email addresses are required. (RAN respects your privacy; we will not use, lend, or sell your email address for any reason.)
April 28th, 2006 at 3:41 pm
Gina is definitely an all-star organizer! Getting her fellow high school students out for a demo on prom day was an impressive feat. But even more impressive was the way that Gina and the other young people handled themselves, really engaging with folks and getting them to listen to what we had to say about the need for Wells Fargo to take steps towards a real environmental and social investment policy along the lines of what many other banks already have. Many folks expressed their concern and signed our petition. Great job Gina!
May 25th, 2006 at 12:37 pm
What is the best way for a current and long time Wells Fargo customer to act while the campaign is going on. I have already called and emailed but I am not the direct action type. Do I cut up my Wells Fargo card and close my account (as I did with Citigroup years ago when we did the action against them) or do I stay as a customer and try to influence as a customer? Thanks. Confused in California.
October 17th, 2006 at 8:42 am
Hi Suzanne,
If you have the energy, I would advise you keep stating your opinions until you get a response that makes you feel good about the bank that you are with. Set a date for this repsonse and contact someone at least once a month. Wells want all their customers to feel good about banking with them - so they need to know what you want…
Positivity is better recieved than negativity however as a motivator for change. So congratulate where you see Wells making progress, then suggest they should to trim the bad fruit from their portfolio and focus on the good…
Please see the post:
http://understory.ran.org/2006/09/18/whose-time-and-money-is-wells-fargo-wasting/