2006 Dream Grant Winners

The absolute toughest part of my job is helping our judging committee pick grant and contest winners each year.  This year's applicants, just like last year's, were extremely tough to separate into a "Yes" and "No" pile.  From helping female Asian poets raise their voices around the world to producing plays on Aids to helping others deal with the pain of abuse and hatred through writing, each and every entry we received opened our eyes to the possibilities of what strong, dedicated writing can do for the world!  We send our heart-felt thanks out to each applicant for his/her amazing efforts to wade into life, waist deep, and make a difference with the written word.  Even though we could not offer a grant to everyone (but man would we sure like too!), we commend each applicant's dream and wish each of them a successful journey. 

Although we are extremely proud of these two applicants, we just couldn't "toss away" the rest--we decided to offer a first "Annual People's Choice" Dream Grant Award from a pool of ten more finalists, so the public can pick one more incredible dream to help come true.  To read more about these aspiring dreams and how you can help one of them come true, click here.

All my best,  CM Phillips

-CM Phillips

Founder & Director

Our first place 2006 Dream Grant award ($650) goes to Jennifer Williams of Alvin, Texas

Jennifer’s entry stood apart from the others in that she is grappling with an area that we haven’t come across before in our grant applicants and in that she actually has several dreams that can be accomplished with one powerful goal—the publication of a collection of stories concerning equine rescue. Jennifer says of her book entitled, Diary of an Equine Rescuer, it will help readers “get to know the amazing horses, donkeys, and mules I have met in the last eight years [in her work running horse rescues]. They will meet the law enforcement officials and fellow rescuers who band together to help needy horses and equines. They will learn about the joys of rescue work—when a badly abused horse takes the first step in trusting humans again—[and] they will also learn about the frustrations of rescue work—when we arrive too late…” Her goal for sharing their stories “is to help others understand the need for the rescue of all species.…The stories will illustrate the influence that caring people can have on the lives of abused and neglected horses, donkeys and mules and…will inspire others to get involved with rescues as volunteers, foster homes, adopters or donors [to] help make a difference in the lives of those who do not have a voice.” Jennifer began her writing career as a child, writing poetry and dreaming of becoming a novelist. Her dreams were crushed just as young, however, when a writing instructor at a middle school conference told her, her writing “was no good.” Jennifer put away her quill pen for a long, long time. It wasn’t until a magazine approached her while she was working on her doctorate to request she write about her experiences with horse rescue that her writing pen resurfaced. Since then, she writes regularly for several horse/equine magazines and now has developed the dream to share her (and their) stories with the world in an attempt to deepen people’s compassion and responsibility to animals. As if that wasn’t enough to put her in the running, she adds that, “Because I am [also] legally blind, I hope that my writing career inspires others. Many people feel that legally blind people are handicapped and cannot do the same things that an individual with “normal vision” can do. My writing career should prove them wrong….If I can reach just one person with a visual disability and inspire them to reach for their dreams, then I will be a success.” And she is! Our judges’ panel loved that this dream crossed many boundaries—animals, people, compassion, hope, disabilities—so many wonderful ways to inspire others and help the world we live in. Jennifer will use her grant money to finish editing her stories before sending them off to potential publishers. Congratulations, Jennifer! If only that middle school conference instructor could see you now!

If you would like to talk to Jennifer about her equine rescue work or her book, she may be contacted at: cowgirljenn@gmail.com.

Our Second place 2006 Dream Grant award ($250) goes to Shaila Abdullah of Austin, Texas

Shaila’s entry hit us at a time when our country, the United States, is under great unrest. It seems in every daily paper, one reads endlessly of son against father, sister against sister, race against race and religion against religion (not to mention country against country). Day in and day out of this is enough to make any one of us cry for help. Shaila’s entry was just that: a cry for help, a cry for people to look beyond the surface of each other’s ethnic groups and traditional identities in order to find the commonalities that exist underneath. Shaila’s exciting proposal for Not My People (a novel) reads, “On September 11, 2001 a pregnant Arissa suddenly becomes a widow, and her meticulously constructed life collapses like a deck of cards in front of her. She must face the most primal and darkest of human experiences—the loss of a loved one—to unveil the courage within her and find the will to go on living. Arissa makes a resolution to pick up the pieces in her life and to complete the novel that her husband had started. Her disabled son and the unfinished novel fuse in her mind into one life-defining project that is, at once, the struggle for her emotional survival and the redemption of a race.” Shaila is not new to struggling either. Growing up in Pakistan, her father would tell her, “Freedom is not something you have experienced [yet]…You will know what you are missing when you see it.” For years Shaila and her family struggled there before moving to the United States where she experienced freedom for the first time. She writes, this country “has given me the opportunities to grow and prosper and make life better for my family. It has given me courage to pick up my pen again and write about experiences of women back home…to build a global understanding of how Pakistani women’s lives are largely dictated by the culture they belong to and how important decisions of their lives are routinely made for them.” Shaila is well on her way to being a successful author. She has been published in many venues including Dallas Child, Web Guru, About Families, Sulekha, Women’s Own, Fashion Collection, and the Tuesday Review. Last year, she published her first collection of stories entitled Beyond the Cayenne Wall which received the 2005 Norumbega Award and a notable mention in the Writer’s Notes Award. One of her stories, Moment of Reckoning, was also chosen as the winner of the Writer’s Digest Short Story Award in 2002. Shaila’s hope for this novel is that it will “attempt to break down the cultural divides and notions of stereotyping that has crept [we would say lept!] into the American society after 9-11. This will be the first such endeavor to tell the story from the other side of the fence and to help people understand that faith has nothing to do with the viewpoints of the terrorists. In fact, faith makes no allowances for such actions. The novel will attempt to build bridges among communities and create a universal understanding….” If her novel makes a dent in the hatred and atrocities humans commit against each other, we will definitely support that! Shaila will use her grant money to help fund a visit to New York City to “see ground zero first hand and to try to bring those sights and sounds to the story.” We applaud you, Shaila!

If you would like to contact about Shaila about her novel or her grant, she may be contact at: shailaabdullah@gmail.com .

2005 Dream Grant Winners

The Hobson Foundation’s first annual Dream Grant was a tough competition. I read through all the entries for the first round, just to discover that I couldn’t put a single entry into the “NO” pile. They were all that good! With much deliberation, advisory board members, Kevin McGonigal and Daena Smith, were able to help me narrow down the choices to three entries. And although we wanted to give away one five hundred dollar entry, we just couldn’t cut out any of the final three entries. (We wish we could give $500 to everyone—and perhaps as our organization grows we might be able to in the future (nudge, nudge, wink, wink— did you see our donations page??)—until then we decided to offer smaller amounts to all three of our finalists and to back each of them, 100%, with all our best wishes for their ambitious projects. Thus we split this year’s grant into our first choice (receiving $400), our runner’s up (receiving $100) and an honorable mention third choice (receiving $50).

And even though we had to deny many exceptional candidates this year, we want to extend a special thank-you to each of you—we can’t offer this Dream Grant without your help. So for each of you—thanks—and keep working towards your dream!

-CM Phillips

Director, Hobson Foundation

Our first place Dream Grant award goes to Darryll Starks of Riverdale, Georgia:

Darryll writes, “On the night of May 10, 2005, I was searching the Internet for young men, who I knew as teenage boys, who are currently in prison in the state of Georgia. This depressing search resulted in me finding eight young men who were all former members of the Boys & Girls Club where I used to work. These young men, all now in their twenties, were youth I recruited between the ages of 13-15, in 1994 when I resigned from IBM, to devote my time, talent and energies to positively impacting the lives of disadvantaged and troubled youth…These young men were exposed to positive influences, support systems and mentors, but for whatever reasons they chose the path of delinquency, which ultimately landed them in prison….The popular saying “each one, reach one” is often heard in the African American community, as a call or challenge for people to take action to help save our youth. Some people are content with fulfilling their moral obligations to “reach one,” but I personally feel obligated to reach more. My plan for deepening my impact is to publish a book entitled 12 Things Every Black Boy Needs to Know….My role as a mentor has allowed me to impact several youth; my roles as a Boys & Girls Club Youth Development Professional has enabled me to impact hundreds of youth, and my book will position me to impact and empower thousands.”

Darryll and his co-author will use their Dream Grant money to assist with copyright & trademark registration, copying, packing and shipping expenses as well as purchasing software and other materials needed as they work toward completing their self-published book.

(Note—We especially loved the breadth of Darryll’s vision. He’s writing; he’s helping others in a very admirable way; and he’s well on his way to realizing his dream. GOOD LUCK, DARRYLL!)

Our second place Dream Grant award goes to Dan Stone of Sun City, Arizona:

Dan writes, “Having spent more than 15 years participating in the process of professional helping, as a counselor, a coach, and a person seeking support for my own growth, I’ve learned the value of language for illuminating the truths that we need to see and for giving voice to what calls—or sometimes screams from inside us. Words have power to comfort, to challenge and inspire, to teach, and to heal….My dream as a writer and as a doctoral student in humanistic and transpersonal psychology is to explore the process of healing and transformation on the page…I am interested in developing a website that is focused on “Writing Your Life” and that serves as a place for sharing stories about writing that heals, for collecting and sharing research and practices for healing on the page, and for dialoguing about the transformations that are available to us as we listen to our hearts and write down what we hear.”

Dan will be using his Dream Grant money to help cover the costs of developing, hosting, and maintaining a web blog and e-course.

(See what I mean? They were all this COOL! We liked this grant for its potential to help others write about their pain—and in that writing, have their hurt transformed into healing. Wonderful! Best of luck with this project, Dan. (When Dan gets his site up, we’ll list it here for you to see).

Our third place Dream Grant award goes to Michael Todd of Woodland Hills, California:

Michael writes, “…the same year I retired from the school district [as a bus driver] after almost 30 years, my father [a Cherokee Indian] became ill and passed away. I missed him terribly and often thought of the wonderful times we had together…looking at the stars and just imagining… I remembered my mother telling us bedtime stories about her life in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas as a girl. Her youngest brother had been killed at the end of WWII in a bomber over Dresden, Germany. I realized that in my own family there was a wealth of stories that needed to be told…. I have taken a three month leave of absence from the retirement community, where I work as a guest services supervisor, to finish this story and find a literary agent.” Although this is worthy enough—as truly everyone has a story to tell—Michael cinched his third place standing with, “ Two years ago, I started a small class at the retirement community to help the people there express their lives. It turned out be just what they needed to do, to tell what they had experienced and share it with others….So many of them have had rich full lives and never had the chance to share it with anyone…” But now thanks to Michael, they do!

Michael will be using his Dream Grant money to help him with expenses as he prepares his book for publication.

Congratulations, Michael, on starting such a worthwhile class, and we wish you the best with your upcoming book—we can’t wait to read your stories!