Grassroots nonprofit that helps women gets over $37,000 in grants this summer

Sisters Helping Each other Reach a Higher Height (S. H. E. R. A. H.) was recently awarded a grant from The Black Communities Investment Initiative of the St. Louis Community Foundation in the amount of $12,000. This summer, S. H. E. R. A. H. received a FLOURISH St. Louis grant in the amount of $25,000. The organization has grown substantially from starting with Sister Circles that encouraged self-care, emotional and mental health wellness to providing programming in school and operating a transitional housing facility for displaced women.

The funding to S. H. E. R. A. H will be used to provide clients, who are of childbearing age, access to educational opportunities, stable housing, public transportation, affordable mental health care, medical care, and healthy foods to foster maternal vitality and long-term stability. Executive Director Shante Duncan expressed how grateful she is that S. H. E. R. A. H. is expanding their programming and helping more women and girls.

She explained, “In 2018, I used my family’s savings to acquire the Joan B. Quinn Safe House. From my work with women and girls I knew there were not enough resources for the unhoused.”

The Joan B. Quinn safe house has assisted over 40 women in the brief time it has been open. S. H. E. R. A. H. also provides programming to the elementary, middle and high school girls across the region through the L.O.V.E. Project (Learning One’s Self Very Extensively). The L.O.V.E. Project is focused on empowering girls of color between the ages of nine and 17. The curriculum, which is written and delivered by Duncan, centers on four core areas: selflove, sisterhood, community development, and entrepreneurship. The eight weeks spent on each of these principles allows students to identify their talents and community projects they are passionate about while also overcoming issues and stereotypes specific to African American girls.

For more information about S.H.E.R.A.H. or to donate email- founder@sherahmovement.com or by calling 314-4670765.

Submitted photo

Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis honors alumni, board members, community partners and staff

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis (BGCSTL) announced the 2021 Annual Recognition event honorees and Alumni Hall of Honor inductees. Each year the staff, board members, volunteers and supporters are acknowledged and celebrated for their commitment to the Boys & Girls Clubs as well as the kids and teens that they serve.

The 2021 BGCSTL Alumni Hall of Honor inductees are Brandon Bosley, Paris Thompson, Sharita Davis, Steve Vasser, Gerald Fulton, Marsha Walls and Kayla Jackson-Williams. The Hall of Honor recognizes outstanding alumni for achievements in their respective fields, commitment to leadership, serving our community’s youth, contributions to the St. Louis community and for living out the mission of the Boys & Girls Club.

BGCSTL President, Dr. Flint Fowler (reflecting on the annual event which has always been close to his heart) said, “This event gives us the opportunity to celebrate the many ways that our staff, board volunteers, alumni and friends contribute to the welfare of the children we serve and highlight our impact. While we recognize the challenges of COVID-19, we believe it is important to recognize the contributions and achievements of so many club constituents.”

Submitted photo

(From left) Dr. Flint Fowler (President, BGCSTL) stands with Sharita Davis, Marsha Walls, Kayla Jackson-Williams, Rev. Steve Vasser, Paris Thompson, accepting on behalf of Gerald “Hitman Holla” Fulton, Jr. (his parents) and Dr. Graylon Johnson (presenter and former Boys & Girls Clubs alumni) – not shown Alderman Brandon Bosley.

Still In This Together:

By Vicki Bahr

I’m pretty sure this is heaven

We left much earlier than necessary for the airport the day our out-of-town daughter was finally coming home for a visit. We always leave early; you never know about traffic, or how crowded the parking garage will be. And honestly, I’ve always loved the airport; the hustle and bustle, the intense looks on the faces of those pulling suitcases on their ways elsewhere, the guessing games of who’s travelling where and why. It’s always been a magical place to me, this hub of comings and goings, and now that things were beginning to seem a bit more “normal,” I desperately wanted to see the proof for myself.

And Katie, our beautiful Katie, was going to be here in the flesh for the first time in nearly 18 months. There had been a trip planned in March of 2020, but fears of COVID stopped that dead in its tracks. Too many worries, too many fears for family’s health both here and there to consider. And so we waited. So very long.

The airport was busy, and I smiled at the normalcy of things. The arrival board showed a slight delay in Katie’s flight. Funny that checking that board didn’t seem to move the waiting process ahead any faster. I finally sank into a chair a safe distance away from another woman about my age after first asking from behind my mask if she was comfortable with the distance between us.

And the wonderful drama began. A grandmother came through the portal from the airport gates, caught sight of her family, and ran faster than her legs should have carried her, to fall to her knees in front of a baby stroller and burst into tears at the first sight of her new granddaughter. I felt my face grinning from ear to ear as tears for a stranger fell from my eyes.

Now the arrival board alerted us that our daughter’s flight was in range. A young woman raced around a new group coming through the portal, grabbed onto an older man who I presumed to be her father, and collapsed into his arms, patting his back and sobbing wordlessly.

I wondered, not for the first time since arriving at the airport, if this is what heaven will be like…waiting for the arrivals of loved ones we’ve been missing for so long, watching as people race through the portal into the arms of their family, closing the gaps between there and here, heaven and earth, with wordless embraces and tears of joy.

And suddenly, as I scanned a new group of passengers, I saw our daughter, tears in her eyes as she zeroed in on her father and ran to his arms. I captured the look on her face…absolute joy, the months we’d been apart miraculously disappearing in that one blissful moment of reuniting. No more distance, no more time apart, only the certainty that we had breached time and space and were together again.

No one could have known that Christmas of 2019, as we laughed and opened presents and exclaimed about the grandkids growing in the couple of months since we’d seen them that we would be separated for over a year and that we would miss over a full year of hugs and story times and family adventures. Our togetherness will never be taken for granted again, and for that I’m so very grateful.

I hugged Katie for a very long time, right there in the middle of the airport, before I could speak, overcome with emotion and happiness.

“I’m pretty sure this is heaven,” I cried. “And no one is going to convince me otherwise.”

www.SeniorsHelpingSeniors.com/StLouisCentral

Vicki Bahr is an inveterate word lover and story sharer, a published author in magazine, newspa per and blog forms. As a mom of four, grandma of nine, and wife of one for nearly 49 years, she finds that inspiration and wonder are everywhere.

The opinions expressed in this column are the columnist’s alone and do not reflect the opinion of the owners or staff of Community News.

www.TheSarahCommunity.com