
Teams of two will come ready to battle tonight at Blue Agave in Federal Hill, stuffing their faces in the name of helping a Southwest Baltimore charity.
Teams of two will come ready to battle tonight at Blue Agave in Federal Hill, stuffing their faces in the name of helping a Southwest Baltimore charity.
Joshua Harris, a community organizer and nonprofit co-founder, puts his leadership and campaign skills to the test as he runs in the crowded race for mayor of Baltimore. Exuding confidence, Harris shared in an interview with Baltimore Fishbowl why he believes he’s uniquely qualified for the job.
Among the highlights, Harris explained how playing basketball prepared him to be mayor, touched on his plans to use renewable energy to spark an economic resurgence, talked about turning Baltimore’s vacant homes from eyesores into assets and explained why the unrest of April 2015 wouldn’t have happened under his watch. Read the full interview for more about Harris and his take on these and other significant issues facing Baltimore City:
Tuesday, November 18
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Cost: $50
Donna Crivello will prepare savory side-dishes to dress up a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Menu items include winter squash risotto, balsamic glazed Brussels sprouts, roasted root vegetables and cranberry granita. Wines selected to accompany a Turkey Day feast for family and friends will be served. Email [email protected]
One can’t help but be inspired by Bill McLennan. As executive director of Paul’s Place, the former banker has been working since 2002 to build community, offer hope and restore dignity to broken lives in one of the city’s most impoverished neighborhoods. Started as a soup kitchen in 1982 by two volunteers from St. John’s Church in Glyndon, Paul’s Place, the community center he runs in Pigtown, now offers programs, services and a community gathering place as it serves 8,000 local residents each year.
That’s no easy task. What started out as a modest helping hand serving lunch from St. Paul the Apostle Church on Washington Boulevard is now an 11,000 square foot building with 15 employees and 22 programs. The lunches are still served — 80,000 meals a year, to be precise — but added to the menu are an emergency food pantry, adult literacy programs, computer skills training, wellness classes, Narcotics Anonymous meetings and more, most of the new programs put in place under McLennan’s leadership. Pulling it all off means budgets must be met, staffs supervised, money raised and more. It takes a certain kind of personality — one that mixes a businessman’s attention to an income statement with the emotional generosity of a social worker — to head an operation as well-run as this one, all while keeping true to the difficult mission of changing lives.
Next Saturday, March 2, the center turns 30 and McLennan will be at The Hyatt Regency with a crowd of over five hundred to celebrate with typical fanfare: dinner, dancing, live and silent auctions. Galas like this one are common this time of year, but what’s rare is a single organization and its supporters working day after day to do the heavy lifting of turning a neighborhood around, small victory by small victory, affecting the lives of more than 200,000 people over 30 years. We can think of no better reason to celebrate.
We asked the beloved exec to share with us the secrets to his success and what it is that keeps him fighting the good fight, year after year.
Sum up your life philosophy in one sentence.
Be the best of whatever you are.