ROUND III
We would like to thank all of our donors for supporting our efforts to provide four $2500 grants in the Deep Ellum community to Cody Shavers, Cabe Booth, Lone Sound Mag and Jordan Edwards. In addition, we were able to award $200 - $500 gift cards to several of our applicants, made possible by a gracious donation from one of our donors who converted his credit card points to gift cards. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy to start a third round of fundraising, but the need in Deep Ellum was so great with so many bars and restaurants still facing unprecedented challenges due to COVID-19 and social distancing guidelines. We're all working so hard right now to face the challenges. Your support is a testament that what we're doing is important. Thank you for investing in the Deep Ellum Community and for believing in the future of our neighborhood. We promise to keep at it and to never, ever take your support for granted. Meet our 2021 grant recipients and read their stories below!
cody shavers
Service Worker • Three Links & Lewellyn’s Print Shop
My story: “Loss of income due to Covid and now facing homelessness due to the winter storms destroying our house. I was working a Lewellyn’s Print Shop and Three Links before being furloughed last March and was unable to get unemployment due to most of my income being 1099 work. I started working at Monkey King to make up for some of the lost income, but was never able to get ahead of bills and have spent the last year chasing rent and bills. When the winter storms came through it burst every pipe in our trailer and we are currently trying to get the money together to move.”
CABE BOOTH
Visual Artist
My story: “We filed our IRS returns back in July 2020 and they have not processed our returns so we were unable to receive any stimulus money. The waiting and stress of watching the mailbox everyday has been beyond belief. This has put us in a position of reaching out to our families to stay afloat. I'm working a day job nine to five, but all that covers is rent. The recent storm closed the shop down for a week and that put a big hit on my income. I do my best to supplement our income with my artwork. There are lots of bills piling up. Pretty much the day after I deposit my paycheck, we pay so much out that our account hovers around $60 until the next paycheck. We're just trying to stay in our house. Any help would be greatly appreciated.”
LONE SOUND MAGAZINE
Small Business
My story: “I started Lone Sound to create the first bilingual print magazine (and online) for Texas music, arts, and culture. Our revenue model focused on venue/brand sponsorships and ads/creative partnerships for events/tours/etc. Consequently, we started a podcast during the pandemic in the meantime. Of course, due to losses in ad opportunities and depletion of my own savings in the last year, I am looking for funds to pay Dallas, Deep Ellum, and Texas-based creatives (writers, illustrators, photographers, and translators) for our pilot print issue. Although we've had to postpone the release date, I do feel that Lone Sound is still needed more than ever. We plan to release the "pilot issue" in May/June.”
JORDAN EDWARDS
DJ/ IAMYU/Visual Artist
My story: “Financially is how I have been affected through this pandemic. Having a DJ residency with House of Frequencies every Monday at Shoals was great weekly income and getting to play venues like Three Links, Club Dada, or Armoury provided fun and lucrative opportunities. Even as a chef, my friends and I would have food pop-ups at private events off Main Street in Deep Ellum. In many ways the pandemic has required me to become more resourceful and to think outside the box for ways to make ends meet. I started the FREEARTPROJECT as a way to show my support to local businesses by making art out of scrap wood, and giving away the art outside of different businesses, while promoting it on my social media. I could use the help, and no matter what I send y'all much love!”