What is Campaign Zero?

Hi everyone, I'm Tom Sutrinaitis and thanks for joining us for this special set of pilates videos, these are dedicated to Campaign Zero, which is an organization that is helping try to end police brutality using data driven and research driven policies and ideas and bring those ideas and reform to police departments around America. This all kinda got started and going, when, I was witnessing what was happening during the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests, and it sparked a series of conversations with some of my black colleagues and friends that I hadn't had to that extent in having true deep, honest conversations with them about, what discrimination really looks like in America and how it's affecting them and the people around me, and, I was so moved by the conversations, a couple of which were one of my colleagues has to drive or feels compelled to drive 30 minutes to a public track just to work out and feel like he's not being watched or suspicious, or feeling that others think he's suspicious while he's working out, instead of just going on a run in his neighborhood, and another co-worker of mine who deliberately thinks about the way that they dress for a dinner party, not just because they wanna look nice, but so that they're not mistaken for a server at the party, and it's these kinds of, transgressions that occur and these, situations that they feel that they are put in and that they are, that I had no idea about and when I heard about these kinds of things, and I started to really listen to them and get their perspective on, what it's like to be, a person of color in America, I broke down crying and I said to myself, "I'm gonna do everything I can "to try to make a change "in the right direction towards progress and equality "in this country," and so, it was around that time that I got together with my friends, and I said, "let's find an organization "that's working to make as much change as possible "in our communities around the country because, "what's happening and what has happened for centuries "and years and years, needs to stop, "and we can be the ones to make that change," and so, we got together and started a fundraiser for Campaign Zero so that they can continue doing what they're doing, and it was at that point, that Kathi Ross Nash, got involved, and she said that, "the pilates communities "is one that would get very much so behind this message "and would, wanna make the same kind of changes "and feels the same way that I do," and so, we decided to put on a special one day pilates event held for Campaign Zero, and dedicated all the classes to that day, for that cause, and so what you're gonna see, in the subsequent videos is our day of that and our dedication to the cause and towards progress in America, and it's gonna be a long uphill battle, and I know that it's gonna take not just months, not just years, but even decades to continue to make progress, and this is one way that we can do that, so I thank you guys for joining us today, thanks for checking out these these videos and thanks a lot, that's all I can say.