Diapers, Backpacks, and Christmas Morning: Walk the Walk Foundation Serves Anne Arundel’s Kids Year-Round
Walk the Walk Foundation began in a garage in Severna Park. After the heartbreaking loss of a child late in pregnancy, one family chose to honor their son’s life by turning their grief into something meaningful: buying Christmas gifts for a child who would have been his age and teaching their other children what it […]
Spa Creek Conservancy: Keeping Annapolis’s Waterways Clean, One Sample at a Time
Every Thursday morning, Donna Jefferson walks to one of three sites along Spa Creek, collects a water sample, and heads back to process it. She is not a scientist employed by the city, the county, or the state. She’s a volunteer, one of many who make up the quiet, determined force behind the Spa Creek […]
Turning Houses Into Homes: How HOPE For All Serves Hundreds of Anne Arundel Families Each Year
When Connie Cooper walks into a home for an intake appointment, she often hears apologetic voices: “I’m so sorry, I don’t have a chair for you.” Families transitioning from homelessness to affordable housing frequently arrive to empty rooms: not a table to eat at, not a bed to sleep in, not even a chair to […]
From Local Streams to National Policy: How Center for Watershed Protection Connects Community Action to Watershed Protection
When over 60 people showed up at Centennial Park in Howard County on a rainy April Saturday to collect trash along the shoreline, Center for Watershed Protection organizers were pleasantly surprised. The park’s well-maintained appearance suggested there wouldn’t be much to find… but the group collected more than 50 pounds of trash hidden along the […]
Grassroots Crisis Intervention: Showing Up When It Matters Most
What happens in the moments when everything feels like it’s falling apart—and someone needs help right now? For Grassroots Crisis Intervention, the answer is simple: you meet people where they are. At Full Sail Media, we’re proud to spotlight Grassroots Crisis Intervention as our latest Changemaker community partner—an organization providing free, 24-hour mental health, crisis, […]
The Watermen’s Fight: Preserving a Centuries-Old Way of Life on the Chesapeake
When Maryland’s Department of Natural Resources announced plans for a new oyster management plan in 2009, the message to watermen was clear: transition to aquaculture or face the end of commercial harvesting as they’d known it for hundreds of years. Jeff Harrison and his fellow Talbot County watermen decided they weren’t going down without a […]
Youth Voice Meets 160 Years of Experience: How Boys & Girls Club Evolves Every Day
When kids at the new Ravens Club in West Baltimore asked for a dance program recently, the staff didn’t create a new curriculum from scratch. They went and found expert partners who already knew how to teach dance well, then brought that program into the club where kids show up every day anyway. It’s a […]
The Backbone of Food Security: How Capital Area Food Bank Tackles Hunger from Every Angle
The Capital Area Food Bank distributed 60 million meals last year across DC, suburban Maryland, and Northern Virginia. It’s an impressive number, until you understand that their ultimate goal is to make that number smaller. “We’re very proud of the work we’re able to do,” explains Abby Fenton, Chief Advancement Officer at Capital Area Food […]
The Power of a Book Club: How Free Minds Proves Literature Can Redirect Lives
In 1996, journalist Kelli Taylor received an unsolicited letter from Glen McGinnis, a young man on death row in Texas for a crime committed when he was 17. She could have ignored it. Instead, she responded, and that simple decision to connect sparked a four-year relationship built around books and writing. Despite Glen’s formal education […]
Bridging Hope and Healing: How Believe Big is Transforming Cancer Care Through Integrative Therapies
How do you find hope when you’re told you have only an 8% chance to live? For Ivelisse Page, that daunting prognosis became the start of a new mission. At age 37, Ivelisse was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer – the same disease that had taken her father and grandmother. Instead of accepting defeat, […]