Wall Service Award 2001 Winners
Hollis Pfitsch ’96
Hollis Pfitsch ’96 is a staff member at the domestic violence unit of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project in Seattle, Washington. For Hollis, helping isolated, traumatized women fulfills the mission of the Wall Service Awards. "We're really focusing on an underserved community-people who are facing a huge array of problems," she says. "This is where it's good to put money."
The Immigrant Women Outreach Project will reach out to immigrant survivors of domestic violence and make them aware that there are laws to protect them. The project will recruit and train immigrant women who are emerging community leaders to reach out to women and educate them about their rights. They also plan to develop accessible outreach materials for women of many languages and cultures, and distribute them to the places even very isolated women go.
Hollis hopes the project will lead to the funding of an outreach and intake coordinator position to continue the work-ideally to be filled by an immigrant woman community leader.
J. Scott Raecker ’84
With the help of Grinnell College and Rotary International, who will match the funds provided by Grinnell, Scott’s project will bring together a team of 16 professionals to renovate and enlarge two orphanages in the City of Lijiang, Yunnan Province, China. The orphanages are home to almost 300 children who have lost their parents to the natural disasters that have recently ravaged the area. Hundreds more children live on their own in towns and villages, struggling to survive, and there are currently no facilities for infants at the orphanages. The total price tag for the project is $125,000, with travel expenses and other incidentals being paid by the volunteers themselves unless more donations can be found.
Scott says the lessons he learned from Professor Wall and others at Grinnell College have brought him to this place in life. "Grinnell set a standard that there was a responsibility to use that education to make the world a better place," Scott says. "It really penetrated my soul.
"Grinnell has given so much to me-I want to leverage that to help someone else."
Learn more about the Wall Service Award and see other previous winners.