From the Farmhouse Table: June 2022
“We’re delighted to have found someone with Roxanne’s passion and experience among our donors and neighbors. ”
-Kimberly A.C. Wilson, Executive Director
Day one on the Hedgebrook team a colleague gave me the Winter/Spring 1996 newsletter. In celebration of the 10th anniversary, Alumna Sandy Polishuk delivered an issue telling the Farm’s genesis story through the co-founders’ and other key people’s own words. Everything I read reinforced my excitement that I had been given the rare opportunity to bring my years of development experience to bear on sustaining and building Hedgebrook. How inspiring to read co-founder Sheryl Feldman’s early and articulate commitment to finding and supporting diverse women’s voices as having been “informed by the natural world.” Nancy Nordhoff’s statement amplified this, noting, “We have to serve the marginalized woman. We’ve got to reach the person who can’t go anyplace else.” Why? Because words matter and so do the women who write them. For far too long those controlling the narrative have not had others’ – nor the planet’s – best interests at heart. As Nancy points out, Hedgebrook offers “an opportunity to bring together the creative capability of nature and humans.” On the land and, through thoughtful virtual programming, across the globe.
I was drawn to development work because it’s all about the future. We get to decide what we want and then work together to make it happen. There is joy in collaborating with like-minded people to improve things we care about. Want good schools? Let’s do it! Want a healthier environment? Want the arts? Want women to find and use their voices to help realize Nancy’s original vision, that we “change this planet in such a way that people can live with one another”? Let’s put our shoulders to our agreed-upon wheel and make it happen!
My service to a range of nonprofits, in terms of size and mission, built deep experience with the full palette of development tools. In addition to raising general operating support in health care, K-12 education, and the arts, my career includes three large capital campaigns and several planned giving awareness programs that drew meaningful estate commitments.
Charmed by the goats and llamas populating my commute from my home outside Coupeville, and energized by the difference Hedgebrook has made and will continue to make, I pinch myself every morning as I drive onto the Farm. Given how I feel, I wasn’t surprised by what original contractor Mike Page had to say about building the cottages when interviewed for that 1996 newsletter: “It was just a joy, and what made it was that we were allowed to build something beautiful . . . It was love.” Everyone associated with Hedgebrook continues to feel and help sustain that love; I am full of pride, gratitude, and humility at being the newest person given the chance to do it as a member of this team.
-Roxanne Kröon Shepherd | Development Director, Hedgebrook