Crescent City Connection

I’m a native New Orleanian representing the Greater Milwaukee Foundation (GMF) attending the Fall Conference in New Orleans. Some might call it fate. I call it homecoming.

I have lived in Milwaukee for nearly seven years, and many would agree with the adage, “Home is where the heart is.” However, my heart spreads across many different areas. While I continue to mourn the loss of my family’s home in the Lower Ninth Ward, a casualty of Hurricane Katrina, my heart has opened to Milwaukee, thanks to those gracious family members who opened their home and hearts to their Southern relatives in need.

For nearly two years, I have called GMF my professional home, and this week marks my start as a member of the community foundation community at my first Council conference. Many here will reconnect with like-minded colleagues and reminisce over conferences past. I am doing double duty—forging new relationships with other professionals in the field and sneaking away to see family and friends. It’s a new way to experience the city, as a native tourist of sorts. I am in town as a professional woman, when just over 14 years ago I rode the public city bus to Eleanor McMain High School, just across the street from this hotel’s front doors.

Earlier today, I remarked to a fellow attendee that despite the years of catching the bus across the street, I never recalled stepping into the actual hotel. Today, I am writing this from a room with a view of the Superdome and the arena. Such a different way to connect to the city and experience what many do on a regular basis—visit New Orleans on business!

Though the distance between my former and current homes is great, my connections to the area have not been tempered. Just moments after stepping off the plane, I saw a childhood friend who works at the airport. A few hours later, I began to put faces to names I communicated with via e-mail, and I met others with connections to my current coworkers. And I can all but guarantee that in less than a year, a name will be written in an e-mail or mentioned in a meeting, and I’ll have the pleasure of saying, “I connected with them at the Fall Conference in New Orleans.” 

Sarah M. Berry is development and donor services assistant at the Greater Milwaukee Foundation.