The Howard County
I N
F O C U S
VOL.15, NO.3
F O R
P E O P L E
O V E R
More than 30,000 readers throughout Howard County
Growing a nonprofit for kids
OhanaHC’s start
They adopted the name Ohana from Wilde Lake’s motto, which contains the Hawaiian word ‘ohana, meaning family. The group’s website explains, “Ohana is about fostering loving and lasting relationships
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Columbia retirees Steve and Susan Porter founded OhanaHC five years ago to help local teenagers. Here, the nonprofit’s executive director, Quinton Askew, sits between them. The organization matches volunteer mentors with students.
with those closest to us, including family, friends, OhanaHC’s and our community.” Drawing both on their careers as business owners and experience doing philanthropic work, the Porters recruited volunteers from their extensive network as well as the community at large. Both had served on boards for 30 years in the county and had done volunteer work
through their synagogue. Still, they are quick to emphasize that Ohana’s success isn’t only because of them. “The analogy I use is that we gathered a whole lot of good kindling, and everyone else lit the match and has gotten this going,” Susan Porter said. “This is such a
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By Shannon Brown Just before the pandemic in 2020, Columbia resident Steven Porter was reading a book that mentioned a Baltimore organization called Threads — a nonprofit that connects at-risk high school students with adult mentors. It sounded to Porter like a success story of community involvement in an increasingly isolated society. Recently retired, he and his wife, Susan, had been searching for ways to get more involved in their community. They decided that a nonprofit modeled after Threads could make a difference in this county as well. “Howard County has a lot of people in need, which a lot of people don’t know about because we are the sixth-wealthiest county in the country,” Susan Porter said in an interview with the Beacon. “And yet, 30 percent or more of our families are eligible for free or reduced-priced meals [for their children in school]. There’s a real dichotomy of people who have a lot and people who don’t have a lot.” So, in February 2020, the Porters reached out to Marcy Leonard, the principal of Wilde Lake High School, and asked what it would take to set up such a mentoring program. Leonard gave them feedback and, indicating that individual support could be critical for some of her students, said Wilde Lake could be the pilot school for the new venture. The Porters wrote up a plan, and Ohana Howard County (OhanaHC) was born.
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