Scholarship Letter from Kelli Smits.

As a member of UFCW Local 27, I am in full support of the labor movement. I realize the importance of advancing toward the goals that stem from the movement due in part to my status as a union member. My mother, to this day, reminds me how I was on the picket lines before I was able to walk. I did not pay attention to that statement until I was fourteen and working at Acme Markets. Only then did my mother’s words begin to matter to me.

Throughout the four years that I have worked at Acme, I have seen and reaped the benefits of having a union job. I am aware that because of my union, I have a voice in the workplace, a benefits package, steady raises, job security and seniority actually means something.

During my senior year of high school, my mother introduced me to the untold story about Wal-Mart. After hearing about all of the horrible things Wal-Mart does to its workers and their families, business owners and the communities that a Wal-Mart resides, I was shocked. I felt obligated to spread the word at my school. I wore “STOP WAL-MART” buttons on my book bag and slapped two anti-Wal-Mart bumper stickers on my car. The buttons and stickers definitely raised awareness about the issues with the company. A few students even requested pins to support the fight. Enclosed is an article that was written by my school’s newspaper in which I am pictured and quoted. The author was prompted to write an article on Wal-Mart because of the controversy I raised in the school.

My personal fight against Wal-Mart continued after the school day was over and into my college years. My mother brought home a film entitled, “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.” I viewed it and thought it portrayed Wal-Mart’s shrewdness very well. I have forced so many of my friends to view the film and have even changed a few of their minds about shopping at Wal-Mart.

This upcoming year, I am going to arrange to have an auditorium set up with the moving playing so I can continue to spread the word about how Wal-Mart is anti-union to the core and why unionizing work places is so essential in today’s word of rising healthcare costs and financial uncertainty.

I thank you for your time and the opportunity to be awarded this scholarship, in which I would be honored to receive.