Remembering StreetWise vendor Scott Elders by Suzanne Hanney
Scott Elders forged a new identity for himself in the last 11 years of his life, as a StreetWise vendor in Wicker Park and as a volunteer chef at Franciscan Outreach’s Marquard Center. Elders died late last year. “Between StreetWise and the Outreach, I’ve grown quite a bit and learned how to communicate with people,” Elders said in a StreetWise profile. “I used to be a ‘Billy Badass’ when I was growing up, so I didn’t get along with anybody. So I kind of did a 180-degree turn and now I get along with people and like people more than I did when I was younger. I just got older and got in the right positions with StreetWise. Plus, my customers are really supportive,” Elders said. Elders spent his mornings selling StreetWise at the Starbucks at 1588 N. Milwaukee Ave. Then, two nights a week, he walked a few blocks east to the Marquard Center at 1645 W. LeMoyne St. to start preparing its free dinner for 70 to 120 people. Chicken, hot dogs, brats, whatever the Marquard Center had, Elders would cook. "I don't know of any soup kitchens that do grilling, or fried chicken or make their own catfish. If we've got it, I'll cook it," Elders said in a StreetWise profile. DNAinfo described Elders standing over a barbeque grill in the Marquard Center courtyard, brushing sauce over preseasoned, donated pork ribs. If Elders had not been there, the ribs would simply have been baked, said Brother Doug Collins, who managed the kitchen’s volunteer staff. When Elders cooked – on Tuesdays and Thursdays – there was a 20 percent increase in Marquard Center patrons, Collins told DNAinfo. “He has been a wonderful asset. He puts a lot of love into his cooking,” Collins said. Margaret Curtain said she could always tell when Elders had done the cooking. “[He] cooks with spices and seasonings and tries to make the food taste better,” she told DNAinfo. Elders prided himself on the quality he delivered. "The good Lord wants us to give to people what you can, and I'm giving the best that I can." Elders was divorced years ago. Later, he suffered a nearly fatal car accident when he fell asleep at the wheel and was hit
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by a semi-truck. His alcoholism worsened after the accident and he eventually became homeless. But more recently, he was able to drink controllably. Elders came to StreetWise in 2009. He had been panhandling at Clark and Lake streets when he met long-time StreetWise vendor Russell Adams. He started at Franciscan Outreach about the same time. Elders had stayed in shelters, and while he was grateful not to be on the street, he said in another StreetWise profile that he was always anxious that someone would attack him or go through his things and steal his phone while he was asleep. But mostly, his criticism was philosophical. Shelters needed to push people toward self-improvement, he said, not just give them a bed. “They’ve got to give them a little bit more and update their programs and make the shelters a working program so that if you want to stay there, you’ve got to be working [in some way],” Elders said. Elders created his own program through StreetWise and Franciscan Outreach. Cooking was his way of giving back to the latter for helping him gain a home again. He continued to volunteer and eventually was paid a $50 weekly stipend. He said he hoped to be an example. “I was on the streets and, before I found somebody that could help me, I had nobody to turn to. Now that I found myself a home, I can help others like I’ve been helped. A lot of homeless people know me and know I was on the street. So I’m trying to inspire them to do something for themselves. If they see me doing it, they can do it too.”
