You are exactly the kind of person whom the Sullivan Ballou Fund seeks to recognize and affirm. As a single mother facing the challenges of raising four children in North Minneapolis, it would be easy for you to limit your love and concern to those in your immediate family. Instead, you have expanded your sense of family and connection to the entire community, and you view its well-being as part of your own. We have learned with great interest about your work as a Northside Liason for the Peace Foundation, an organization based on the same values of heart and commitment that Sullivan Ballou expressed. We have heard how in the engagement zones at Lowry and Lyndale, Plymouth and Logan, and Broadway and Lyndale, where violence is real, you walk up to homes, knock on the front door and invite your neighbors to be a Peace House engaged in community action. You call your neighbors to community meetings to share concerns and to support legislative action on public policies to address violence. You engage them.
This is demanding, brave work, which can be successful only if it comes straight from the heart. That is how you do it. People speak of the love, the determination, and the optimisim you convey. Because you are brave, optimistic, and determined, it gives your neighbors heart and courage to stand with you against violence and community decay. You are a person who will bring change by inspiring others. It is an honor to get to know you and to recognize your work in this small way.Congratulations!
Bruce Peterson and Susan Thompson, Board Representatives