“Come to Kenya. Meet my people.” This is what Mama Ada, born in Kenya, told Julie Keller one Sunday morning six-plus years ago at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Minnetonka. Ada raised 11 children on a farm in Kenya. One of her grown children at the time lived in Minnesota and was expecting a baby around the time that Ada came to visit. Ada worshipped at St. David’s while she was here and told many people about the hardships faced by her fellow Kenyans back home.
Keller, a mother with small children at the time, remembers sitting with Ada for a cup of coffee. “I’m a pretty good small-talker,” says Keller. “But small talk was difficult because I sensed Ada had something important to say.” And what Ada said has changed many lives. She said, “Come and see.”
Eight months later, Keller and three others boarded a plane for Kenya. “We didn’t know what to expect,” Keller recalls. “But what we met when we landed [on the other side of] the world was a very kind woman living in a place of great need.”
This kind woman’s invitation has since birthed the Mama Ada Foundation. Keller, who has worked as an administrator with the Minnesota Department of Education and has a graduate degree in nonprofit/public management, has visited Kenya several times, refining the specific focus of the Mama Ada Foundation.
What Keller had discovered on her visits to Kenya were many children orphaned by AIDS, mothers and grandmothers raising kids alone, 30 to 50 percent of teens not attending high school due to nonexistent public education and limited tuition for private education, and many farmers living hand to mouth, lacking enough seed to plant crops. Keller focused on the last two issues, and determined that the Mama Ada Foundation would provide funds for children’s scholarships and money for farmers to buy seeds.
The next step was to raise money to support the foundation’s mission. At 6:30 p.m. October 26, the Mama Ada Foundation will host its fifth annual fundraiser gala. This year’s event, featuring a masquerade theme, will be at Bearpath Country Club in Eden Prairie. The gala will include a silent auction, a live auction and dinner MCed by J.D. Steele with a performance by Size2Shoes. Tickets are $25 for students and $50 for adults.
Keller is particularly excited about the number of high school students involved with planning the event this year. “I love involving young people,” she says. “The creativity and enthusiasm of high schoolers is unmatched. They only need adults to walk alongside them and give some direction.” Adult guests are also excited for a chance to bring kids to a fancy event, she notes.
Edina High School students Marit Hunt and Laura Wilde are part of the team involved in organizing the masquerade gala. Hunt says she’s interested in the mission of the Mama Ada Foundation because of its attempt to do more than “send ‘stuff.’ ” “They’re helping people get going on their own,” says Hunt. Wilde agrees. While she enjoys volunteering with organizations such as Feed My Starving Children, Wilde says, “Mama Ada is less focused on giving food and more focused on giving resources to help Kenyans [produce] their own food. It’s a long-term solution versus temporary help.”
As for the gala, both girls look forward to seeing how the event comes together. Hunt says she has helped her mother, Marsha Hunt of Haute Flower Boutique, with event decorating and floral work in the past but has never been responsible for a major event. Hunt and Wilde are also looking forward to attending the gala. They hope to be joined by many young people and are working to get the word out through a Facebook page.
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To learn more about the foundation, check out the Mama Ada Foundation Facebook page, and, Keller, says, to better understand the true nature of the organization and who it helps. “There are pictures of people from here and from Kenya on our Facebook page,” says Keller, “photos that depict the connectedness of people helping people around the globe—a true celebration of the many ways people reach out to others every single day.”
