Shilda Fresch Calvin

Foundation Communities would like to highlight Shilda Fresch Calvin because of her incredible community service during Winter Storm Uri. Shilda is an alumna of Free Minds, Class of 2018. She is currently a student at Austin Community College majoring in Education and participating in the College Hub’s Succeed program. At a time when Central Texas was struggling immensely with the power outages and lack of access to water, Shilda and her husband immediately went out and braved the brutal conditions to purchase bottled water, food and other necessities.  They drove door-to-door taking these resources to our neighbors in need.

“We put out a post online and folks put in their requests. (We) went around to individuals, folks who were impacted by the storm, and delivered them water and food and even baby meals — even things like Pampers and milk,” Shilda said.

Additionally, during the storm, Shilda put out a list of daily resources for the Central Texas community on social media. She took information shared through her program at Dress for Success and made it public on a shareable doc to forward the resources widely throughout the community to those impacted.

The news of her community service spread all the way to Chicago, Illinois, the home of the faith-based community Everlasting Love Ministries, prompting them to donate funds directly to Shilda. With this additional support, she was able to make 100 care packages, distributing them to unhoused individuals recovering from the storm over the course of the following weeks.

Thank you, Shilda Fresch Calvin for your incredible service to our Central Texas community!