Earlier this year, during their annual Crab Feed, the Wildwood Dads’ Club showed a series of quirky, self-deprecating videos - including one depicting the community's lack of diversity - as part of the evening’s entertainment. Unfortunately, the video series ended with a bizarre clip of a black woman yelling something unintelligible. That portrait was also the only image of a black person in the series. To their credit, the club board recognizes how offensive this is, and issued a letter of apology (appended below). They have also expressed a willingness to engage the Wildwood community in thoughtful dialog on this subject going forward. PADC looks forward to working with and supporting the Wildwood Dads’ Club as we all tackle this vital topic head on.
February 12th, 2016
Re: Wildwood Dads’ Club Crab Feed, Saturday February 6th
To: Attendees, Teachers and Staff at Wildwood Elementary and Wildwood Community
We appreciate the volunteer contributions of all members of the Wildwood Dad’s Club. Our goal is to be an active and positive member of the Wildwood Community through our various fundraising efforts, such as last Saturday’s Crab Feed. We also want to hold ourselves to the highest standard of appreciating and fostering diversity in all we do as role models to our children including supporting positive portrayals of all members of our society.
We regret that we misstepped in that effort in a portion of our entertainment at the Crab Feed. We take responsibility for the entertainment and sincerely apologize for any offense we may have caused.
We have sought the input of PUSD leadership and Wildwood's Piedmont Appreciating Diversity Club representative to ensure we are taking the necessary steps to address this instance and also our practice going forward. We have also discussed this issue at our regular meeting and the Club has recommitted to ensuring the most positive and productive contributions to Wildwood Elementary School, its teachers and staff and the Wildwood community as a whole.
Should you have any questions or wish to discuss this matter directly please feel free to reach out to at pdwagener@comcast.net.
Thank you for all your support over the years.
Yours sincerely,
Peter Wagener
President
Wildwood Dads’ Club
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