Help Q realize her dream of a home
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LATEST UPDATE: WE EXCEEDED OUR REVISED GOAL IN LESS THAN A WEEK! Thank you Lopez Community for helping Q realize an American dream of a home right here on Lopez.
Update: WOW!! We exceeded the goal in 15 hours!!
We are so humbled by the community's overwhelming love, support and generosity for Q and her first home. Thank YOU!
Now that the equity for Q's new home is funded, we have updated the goal to include funds to help Q get furnishings, kitchen appliances as well as compost, materials, seeds and plants for her garden.
With much love, humility and gratitude.
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Q (Quaniqua) Williams dreams of having a home.
At first, she did not even allow herself to really dream it as no one in her family has ever owned a stable home. With encouragement from friends, she decided to gather her courage and submitted an application to the Lopez Community Land Trust for an affordable home. We just heard the good news. Q has been accepted to join the Salish Way neighborhood!
Let’s help make her dream a reality. A few people are joining together to help Q secure the $10,000 needed by Aug 7th to purchase a share and move into a home in the Salish Way co-op.
Q grew up in Crescent, Georgia, close to the ocean on the other side of the continent. She has supported herself since she was 13 years old, staying wherever she could find safe haven, whether with relatives or friends. Finishing high school is a very big deal in her hometown community because most people do not. But Q graduated with a 4.3 GPA and went on Darton State College in GA. She has an associate degree in psychology.
Much of her early childhood was spent with her grandmother and extended family that spoke “Geechee” in their homes. Geechee, also called Gullah, is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people, an African-American population living in the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. Q remembers that in this culture, if someone had food, you had food. They were very giving at the table.
Q has continued to carry that tradition to Lopez, making meals for friends, and if she gets a big harvest of something, from seafood to garden produce, she shares it. She marvels at the miracles of seed sprouting from life giving soil. Her eyes shine and dance when she gets to harvest kale, chard, strawberries, peas or raspberries. She yearns to have her own kitchen so she can “cook and feed the whole Lopez community.”
One of her jobs just before coming to Lopez was as a manager in a JC Penny’s Department Store in southern Georgia. As manager, she made $9/hr! She is not the kind of person to burden you with her personal stories and struggles. But through various interactions, I have pieced together the challenges she has faced as a black woman.
I have known Q for over 3 years and have been spending a lot of time with her, working together in the garden, volunteering together (to make masks or put up signs, for example). I found Q to be very intelligent, thoughtful and wise beyond her years. She always has very insightful, practical suggestions when we face challenges or encounter problems or are caught in an awkward situation. What I appreciate about her is that she observess and looks for opportunities to help others, looking to improve the overall experience of everyone around her.
It must have been such a bold, intimidating move for Q to decide to pack up and relocate so far from her hometown to plant roots in such a White community like Lopez Island. There are challenges and she continues to navigate them. She now learns how and where to buy her own seasoning and hair products. Since 2017, Lopez has been her home, interspersed with family visits and travels.
She loves Lopez for its community of caring, welcoming people. She values clean air, clean soil and is touched by how she feels included here. She dreams that one day she will be able to raise her children in a safe, nurturing environment, away from unnecessary prejudice and violence.
Will you join us in helping Q realize her dream of a stable home?
Update: WOW!! We exceeded the goal in 15 hours!!
We are so humbled by the community's overwhelming love, support and generosity for Q and her first home. Thank YOU!
Now that the equity for Q's new home is funded, we have updated the goal to include funds to help Q get furnishings, kitchen appliances as well as compost, materials, seeds and plants for her garden.
With much love, humility and gratitude.
-------------------------------------------
Q (Quaniqua) Williams dreams of having a home.
At first, she did not even allow herself to really dream it as no one in her family has ever owned a stable home. With encouragement from friends, she decided to gather her courage and submitted an application to the Lopez Community Land Trust for an affordable home. We just heard the good news. Q has been accepted to join the Salish Way neighborhood!
Let’s help make her dream a reality. A few people are joining together to help Q secure the $10,000 needed by Aug 7th to purchase a share and move into a home in the Salish Way co-op.
Q grew up in Crescent, Georgia, close to the ocean on the other side of the continent. She has supported herself since she was 13 years old, staying wherever she could find safe haven, whether with relatives or friends. Finishing high school is a very big deal in her hometown community because most people do not. But Q graduated with a 4.3 GPA and went on Darton State College in GA. She has an associate degree in psychology.
Much of her early childhood was spent with her grandmother and extended family that spoke “Geechee” in their homes. Geechee, also called Gullah, is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people, an African-American population living in the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia. Q remembers that in this culture, if someone had food, you had food. They were very giving at the table.
Q has continued to carry that tradition to Lopez, making meals for friends, and if she gets a big harvest of something, from seafood to garden produce, she shares it. She marvels at the miracles of seed sprouting from life giving soil. Her eyes shine and dance when she gets to harvest kale, chard, strawberries, peas or raspberries. She yearns to have her own kitchen so she can “cook and feed the whole Lopez community.”
One of her jobs just before coming to Lopez was as a manager in a JC Penny’s Department Store in southern Georgia. As manager, she made $9/hr! She is not the kind of person to burden you with her personal stories and struggles. But through various interactions, I have pieced together the challenges she has faced as a black woman.
I have known Q for over 3 years and have been spending a lot of time with her, working together in the garden, volunteering together (to make masks or put up signs, for example). I found Q to be very intelligent, thoughtful and wise beyond her years. She always has very insightful, practical suggestions when we face challenges or encounter problems or are caught in an awkward situation. What I appreciate about her is that she observess and looks for opportunities to help others, looking to improve the overall experience of everyone around her.
It must have been such a bold, intimidating move for Q to decide to pack up and relocate so far from her hometown to plant roots in such a White community like Lopez Island. There are challenges and she continues to navigate them. She now learns how and where to buy her own seasoning and hair products. Since 2017, Lopez has been her home, interspersed with family visits and travels.
She loves Lopez for its community of caring, welcoming people. She values clean air, clean soil and is touched by how she feels included here. She dreams that one day she will be able to raise her children in a safe, nurturing environment, away from unnecessary prejudice and violence.
Will you join us in helping Q realize her dream of a stable home?
Organizer and beneficiary
Chuenchom Greacen
Organizer
Lopez Island, WA
Quaniqua Williams
Beneficiary