Your Incredible Spirit of Generosity
“I don’t want anyone to have to worry about getting their food when they need to focus on their health.” - Adam Welsh, aged 9
As a first-grader at Gwynedd Mercy Academy Elementary, Adam Welsh attended a 2017 presentation with Sister Mary Scullion. He left the event knowing that even a single dollar could have an impact in the life of someone engaged in Project HOME’s mission. Fast forward to the sprawling COVID-19 pandemic and Adam’s thoughts returned to Project HOME. “I don’t want anyone to be hungry,” said Adam, now nine-years-old. “I don’t want anyone to have to worry about getting their food when they need to focus on their health.”
With the help of his dad, Joe, Adam made an online gift of $50 to support Project HOME’s response to COVID-19. While this portion of his savings could have purchased “pretty much anything” in his favorite game, Fortnite, the next round of gaming with his friends online was on pause for the moment.
In the summer of 2009, Laura Chisholm was a Samuel S. Fels Fund Summer Intern at Project HOME. During her role, she helped to co-author a policy paper alongside Laura Weinbaum and Rachel Yoder (both still with Project HOME). Equally important was that she was expecting her first child. “It was amazing to work alongside Laura [Weinbaum] that summer,” Chisholm reflects. “She was opening up the world of Project HOME to me, and at the same time, she had been in my shoes as an expecting first-time Mom.”
Chisholm’s first-born, Alma, 10, and her 6-year-old brother, James, both benefit from a “matching gift” program that Chisholm and her husband, a community organizer in Camden, New Jersey, have created. For every dollar that the sister and brother duo donate to charity, it is matched one-to-one by their mom and dad. “We want giving to become a life-long habit for them,” said Laura. For James, his heart was with “people who can’t be around one another, but still need food and medicine to survive.”
These are just two stories embedded within an inspiring outpouring of support that is rallying around Project HOME and the most vulnerable in our community. In the month of March alone, Project HOME’s tried and true supporters like Adam, Alma, and James were joined by more than 300 first-time donors to contribute more than $75,000 to our COVID-19 response.
We are in this together and we will get through this together; your incredible spirit of generosity makes that possible.
