Past Partner to Board President
A Letter from Chelley
Alice Henderson, my Partners in Housing case manager, sat across from me at my kitchen table. She said, “This is only a season of your life.” How meaningful those words were to me then, and how I needed to hear them. She told me she believed in me and my family and that we would get through this time.
And we did, thanks to Partners in Housing.
That was many years ago, but I can still feel all the feelings deep inside. Fear, dread, worry, but also, I felt hope. I had been involved in my church for over a decade, but when things got extremely hard, it was the people at Partners in Housing who intervened. They started as strangers, but now, I know them as life-long friends. They changed our lives.
Back then, I worried if my kids would turn out okay, after having gone through so much trauma. Now, they are 42, 40, and 34, and they are all doing extremely well, are engaged citizens, have their own families, and call Colorado Springs home.
Shawn is working for Gordan Construction as their superintendent and project manager for new MOSAICA, which consists of 255 affordable homes. He and Michelle have two children, Isabel and Silas. Olivia graduated from Leadership Pikes Peak. She is a community volunteer and she and Colin have Jordan. Chelise is the founder of the Waldo Waldo 5K. She and Jeff have two children, Sterling and Celestine. Along the way I became an adoptive grandma and Jack, Schafer, Drew and Zimmerman call me grandma too.
Each of my grown children exemplify what caring human beings are: a model they found in Partners in Housing.
I am so thankful for Partners in Housing, who not only provided a lovely home for us, but provided counseling, group meetings, life skills, financial counseling, and encouraged me to go back to school.
After graduating from their program, I taught for 21 years in Academy School District 20 at Mountain River Middle School. I recently retired and now run two Airbnb’s and work part-time for the Myron Stratton Home providing subsidies to seniors in need.
In April of 1999, I joined the board and later became the Board Chairperson. We worked on so many exciting programs, and at the root of all those initiatives were people, like me, who encountered the devastation of homelessness with their families, but were given the hope and the time needed to repair and rebuild their lives. I served on the board until 2008 and was so pleased to receive the Women’s Foundation Be Bold Award in 2007, given to women whose passion for the well-being of Colorado’s women and girls has inspired them to do great things. How fondly I remember Dick, Frank, Louise, Mary, Donnis, Sherri, Alice, Alison and fellow Board members Sharon Tunson and Roxanne Novak, and so many others. It is an honor to be part of the Partners in Housing family.
Congratulations, Partners in Housing, on 30 years of helping those in the greatest need. I am so thankful, every single day, for your outpouring of genuine, practical, inch by inch, day by day, LOVE to me and my family. A thousand-fold blessing for your generosity and support for those who are hurting and homeless with children in this community.
Chelley Gardner-Smith
Feature Image: Chelley and Mayor Mary Lou Makepeace
Chelley Gardner-Smith was recognized as one of only 20 Colorado recipients for the Women’s Foundation “Be Bold” awards. This one-time award honors women whose passion for the well-being of Colorado’s women and girls has inspired them to do great things.
