Meyer is excited to have three of the first class of Philanthropy NW's Momentum Fellows.
Sharon Wade Ellis works as a fellow on the Housing Opportunities portfolio. She blogged about by her passions for philanthropy and housing, which ultimately brought her to Meyer.
Here's how she began her essay:
When I was a kid, I spent summers with my grandparents in their old and drafty home on Chicago's South Side. I recall going to the candy store next door, falling asleep on the enclosed back porch with the hot Midwestern summer sapping all my energy, listening to the roar of the trains rattling by. I remember navigating the rickety wooden stairs down the dirt alley to a shared garden patch where we'd pick greens and onions, and crossing the gravel parking lot to visit my great-grandmother nearby.
My grandmother would often share her own memories of that home and say, “Those were good times," and I remember thinking, "It's just an old, dilapidated house.” With each passing year, however, I grew to understand my grandmother’s feeling. There was always laughter, especially around the kitchen table. Even when hard times hit, there was a sense of security permeating every nook and cranny of that old home — and laughter wasn’t far behind.
Read all of Sharon's essay, and check out essays and blogs by other Momentum Fellows, here.