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| Affiliation | Democratic |
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2016-01-01 |
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| Name | Virginia Perez |
| Address |
Yonkers, New York , United States |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
Unknown
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| Contributor | nystate63 |
| Last Modifed | 123NY
Dec 30, 2018 07:53pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Virginia Perez was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the United
States with her family as a young girl. She attended Yonkers public schools
and graduated from Saunders Trade and Technical High School. Wanting
to stay close to her family she decided to attend Monroe Community
College where she acquired degrees in Hospitality and Business
Management. During college she was awarded an internship at the
prestigious Plaza Hotel and the hotel hired her immediately upon
graduating.
Her career in the hospitality industry afforded her opportunities to travel and
Virginia’s fascination with foreign cultures and languages has taken her
from Istanbul to Morocco to Lima to Madrid.
In late 2007 when Hurricane Noel ravaged the Dominican Republic,
Virginia mobilized the Southwest Yonkers community. Using her parent’s
living room as headquarters she collected ten large cargo containers of
food, water, clothing, shoes, medicine, toys and more. She followed
through with shipping them and saw that they were distributed successfully
to families in dire need on the island.
Virginia purchased her first home at the age of twenty five and continues to
encourage friends and family to do the same as a stabilizing influence in
the community. Even before her brother Martin’s tragic death she was a
vocal advocate for a collective focus on the neighborhood’s crime problem
which discouraged investment in property and perpetuated a cycle of
absentee ownership.
When her brother was murdered she first sought to organize a
neighborhood watch program entitled Help put Yonkers on the MAP
(Martin Antonio Perez). She learned quickly that without strong enforceable
laws to deter gang violence the most vigilant citizens were virtually
powerless against crime. She began to lobby the State Senate to pass
legislation she named Martin’s Law. It requires landlords, property owners
and management companies to take more responsibility for the safety of
their tenants and the general public. Frustrated with the slow pace of the
political process, she decided she needed to run for office herself to give
testimony to the devastating effect of senseless violent crime on a family
and a community. Virginia believes she can be the best advocate for her
community to ensure that the conditions which breed such mindless
violence are addressed.
She ran for Yonkers City Council in 2009 falling 8 votes short in a
Democratic primary tainted by the admitted voting fraud of her opponent’s
attorney. Although initially discouraged by the corrupt machine politics she
experienced, her recent travels through India and China have given her
time to reflect and re dedicate herself to being a voice for the people of
southwest Yonkers.
Virginia Perez is a fine example of a young citizen with a blossoming career
in private industry who feels called to public service for all the right reasons.
She has an abiding love for her community and wants to elevate not only
her neighbors’ standard of living but more so their expectations of what
they can hope to achieve in life through hard work and education. It’s
Virginia’s goal to educate her people on the value of becoming organized
as a community and on the benefit of holding elected officials accountable
for their behavior.
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