By Anneke Karreman, Digital Design Assistant, and Mary Lacey, Project Assistant, Seattle University’s Project on Family Homelessness
Note: Anneke and Mary put together this photo essay featuring some of our favorite memories of the HEH Hall of Fame event. For more, including the video and list of Hall of Fame honorees, see the event page. All photos are by Steve Schimmelman.
Thanks to all who came out Saturday, Feb. 22 for the first Higher Ed on Homelessness (HEH) Hall of Fame event!
The Hall of Fame honored many of the SU students, staff, faculty, and alumni who work to solve homelessness, at the Men’s Basketball Hall of Fame Game against CSU-Bakersfield. We gave Hall of Famers honorary buttons (above), designed by Anneke, to acknowledge their efforts to fight homelessness, and invited them on court for recognition from the SU community at halftime.
The night started off at Southpaw Pizza across from the SU campus, where Hall of Famers attended a happy hour event, to eat, drink, mingle and reminisce on their SU memories. We consumed delicious pizza and salad over fruitful conversation. Thank you, Southpaw, for kicking off the night with a great start!
Our co-emcee, Armen Papyan (right), grabbed some pizza before heading to the Redhawk Center for the big event. Armen works in SU’s Albers School and is a grad student in the MPA program.
Honorees met each other to discuss their work on homelessness at their different organizations and make connections to collaborate in the future. Some of the many organizations represented included All Home, DESC, United Way King County, the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance, Wellspring Family Services and YouthCare.
We asked attendees to bring a non-perishable food item for the SU Food Pantry, located in the Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA), which provides free food to the SU community along with other helpful resources. Donations support OMA’s Food Security Initiative that fights food insecurity on campus. We collected a tub full of food; thank you everyone who donated!
Click here for more information on OMA’s Food Security Initiative.
Prof. Zach Wood (center) of our department, the Institute of Public Service, gets an assist from Dean Powers as he checks in honoree Sally Hogan, budget manager for the College of Arts & Sciences.
With all this great company, the time flew by and soon it was time to head over to the Redhawk Center to get set up for our Action Table.
Project Assistants Anneke and Mary, alongside Desiree from the Center for Community Engagement (CCE), hosted an information and action table at the game. Hundreds came by to get action tips, grab stickers, and make buttons. They could also check out some of our students’ work, like Anneke’s infographics on K-12 student homelessness for Schoolhouse Washington, which were on display to highlight our community’s efforts in addressing homelessness. Many thanks to Desiree for volunteering at our table that night and to CCE for supporting our event.
Mary talking to game attendees about student homelessness and SU efforts to combat housing insecurity. Check out our website to learn about ways to act today, tomorrow and this year!
Anneke’s parents, Frank and Jennifer Karreman, came by to support us (below). Frank has been a big contributor to our project, having designed the art installation we’ve displayed at Housing & Homelessness Advocacy Day in Olympia the past two years.
The Game Begins!
The game started out with the Redhawks behind on the board, but we were lucky to see them surge back for an exciting first half and eventual victory!
The positive energy from the court carried over into the HEH Hall of Fame halftime event, emceed by the new President & CEO of United Way and SU alum Gordon McHenry Jr. Accompanying him was Armen Papyan, SU staff member in the Albers School, masters student in Public Administration and active housing advocate since his days as a student leader at UW-Tacoma.
Addressing the halftime crowd, Gordon and Armen underscored the importance of taking action on homelessness advocacy. Gordon emphasized that every person can make a difference and talked about the power of people working together; the Seattle U community has made an impact on solving homelessness in many ways. We are thankful to Armen, who shared some personal insights into his experience with homelessness and his constant fight for others. Safe and stable housing is a fundamental human right.
We realize not everyone could be there for the event; but as Gordon said, hundreds, if not thousands of members of the Seattle U community have been working on solving homelessness and making a difference. Thank you to all who came out to symbolize our supportive community around people experiencing homelessness.
The surprise was that all the people asked to come onto the court were “inducted” into the Hall of Fame, meaning that roughly 100 people are part of the inaugural group. As we gathered on the court, the monitor displayed a video montage of all of the Seattle U Hall of Fame honorees and their contributions to solving homelessness. You can find the video on the HEH Hall of Fame home page.
Thank you so much to everyone who came out and also to those who couldn’t make it to the event. We want you to know how appreciative we are of your work! All of our individual actions add up, no matter what size, to address homelessness in our community.
For more background on this evening, see the Event Page.
projectonfamilyhomelessness.org 
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