The Bridge

(1985-1990)

 

The Bridge was the one successful social change idea I have managed to bring to full fruition. I organized and ran The Bridge for five years in Garberville. Hundreds of people used The Bridge for all kinds of meetings and discussion groups. We even hosted three official College of the Redwoods courses. When Redwood Summer happened The Bridge became an organizing base for environmental actions and I became involved in the Headwaters Forest saving effort at that time.

 

 

 

By Mary Anderson

Redwood Record Correspondent

"It's definitely off the beaten path and rather hard to find, but the three local men who are behind The Bridge have hopes that their project is the beginning of an intellectual and research center in Garberville.

Mark Drake, Paul Encimer and Ariel Lewis each had been mulling over the idea of starting a place like The Bridge individually, but four months ago they connected with each other and began the actual planning.

According to Lewis, each of them has his own particular vision. But, he said, "When we sat down to discuss our ideas, we found that they coincided enough to make it a common project.'

Lewis said his personal motivation is spiritual and philosophical, "The intellectual energy in this town centers around direct political action causes and people tend to congregate at the EPIC office. I'd noticed that a lot of the people in the community didn't feel comfortable there. If you weren't a direct activist, you really didn't have much of a say. So I thought setting up a room that could unite people who were interested in community building projects."

 

Yes, that's me in 1985 when I was known for 14 years in the Mateel community as Ariel Lewis