Everyone has a story to tell, but community advocate Edna Lawrence, 59, has many.
Grandmother Edna, as she is known to many, runs a storytelling program ? A Grandmother?s Pilgrimage ? for children in Baltimore City.
“I tell African-American history from a storyteller?s perspective,” Lawrence said.
With her many historical artifacts, including newspapers from the 1800s, Lawrence travels to area schools, churches and community centers to teach children ages 4 through 18 the history of their culture. “If you don?t understand other people?s culture, you won?t understand how to communicate,” Lawrence said. “I think it?s necessary that everyone learn everybody?s history.”
During the summer, Lawrence ran a summer program for kids of all ages, which included a kindergarten prep school, a home etiquette program and an entrepreneurial program with her son Carmel?s barber shop, Nappee By Nature.
But her work doesn?t stop there. Besides being an active community advocate involved in rallies and protests on educational issues in Baltimore City, Lawrence is also vice president of the Thurgood Marshall Middle School PTA and provides job referrals for the children she teaches. She also writes a weekly newsletter, creates poetry and teaches a genealogy class.
Lawrence recently received a $25,000 grant from the Mayor?s Office for Children, Youth and Families, the Family League of Baltimore City and the Maryland Department of Juvenile Justice for her storytelling program.
“The nontraditional service-provider grants came about almost two years ago, when we began hearing about programs in the city that were run by people who just cared about kids,” said Edward Hopkins, chief spokesman for the Department of Juvenile Justice. “A number of people in the area started programs with their own monies. It means that folks in the city are taking responsibility for community kids and giving them something to latch on to.”
Grandmother Edna?s passion for community has also taken hold of her daughter, Rhonda Allen, who received the 2004 Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Award for her work chairing the Share and Care program at Hopkins Hospital. The program provides gifts for needy children in the East Baltimore area. With Allen?s help, the program has touched the lives of more than 1,000 children.
“My slogan is ?One door, many services.? If you come in my door for one thing and accidentally mention something else, you?ll get it,” Lawrence said.
