Saying Goodbye to Patrick

After over a year with us at the From Poverty to Opportunity Campaign, Patrick Stonehouse's internship is ending. He has been a tremendous asset to the work of the Campaign and Heartland in general, with particular emphasis on making our social media - the Facebook group, the Twitter page, and, most importantly, this blog - content rich. If we are lucky, he may grace us with a post now and again in the future. Below are his parting words. Join me in thanking him for his time and wishing him the best.

It has been a pleasure and an honor to serve the people of Illinois as an intern with The From Poverty To Opportunity Campaign. From the enormity of the current budget situation to the food banks running out of food to conversations with people on the street and people living in poverty, The From Poverty To Opportunity Campaign (by which I mean the staff and the supporters) have shown me a depth and breadth of both the experience of extreme poverty in Illinois and the human condition, that I doubt I could have found anywhere else.

This has been a tremendous year and I thank all of you for the opportunity to have participated in the work that we are all doing, and the lives that we are living.

I know that for many of you I have been a fairly anonymous blog poster with the Campaign, and that is fine, but for me, you – advocates, concerned citizens, service providers, and especially the people of Illinois who are struggling in poverty- you have been and will continue to be, an inspiration.

Thank you,

Patrick Stonehouse
Intern- The From Poverty To Opportunity Campaign, 6/08-6/09