The Walker Phenomenal Spirit Award
Achieve Your Dream
 Do you, or a woman you know, need a little financial help to complete a life-long dream? The Walker Phenomenal Spirit Award offers a $1,000 one-time grant to a woman aged 35 years or older to help fund a project, activity or event that fulfills a heartfelt desire. Applications will be taken from October 1 - November 18, 2011.
The purpose of The Walker Phenomenal Spirit Award is to help a middle-aged women achieve a goal that has just been beyond reach and satisfies a very personal aspiration.
The award will not provide funds for daily personal or household expenses such as daycare, gas, car repairs, etc. The award check will go directly to a third party for an expense such as training or equipment.
The 2012 winner will be announced in December 2011. APPLY»
Click here if you are interested in contributing to the Walker Fund.
 Past Winners
2010
Debbie McIlwain
2009
Sandra Bligen Frazier
 2008
Lynda Rock
Shannon Cavanaugh
2007
Laurie Copley
About Doretha Walker
 I am Doretha. The Walker Phenomenal Spirit award is my dream. The fund was born because I wanted to provide a source of money for women to fulfill their dreams. At the time, I was contemplating going back to school and could not find a place to get grant money that did not require me to fit into a box. I was not unemployed, on welfare, abused, homeless, gay, single parent or any of the other labels that generally give money to women. When I first conceptualized this award, I did not have any money to create a fund, but once I got a bonus from work, I did it. It is as simple as that.
Also, after thinking of the legacies left behind by Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King, I wondered what my legacy would be. I decided to determine it while I was alive.
I was not exactly sure what this award should look like or even more unsure if people would accept it and support it. When I heard Oprah say that it was our duty to give back, and to stop living our lives small, I knew I had to do it. I could not let my dream sit in my heart and fester. I had no excuse not to do it this time.
The poem by Langston Hughes A dream Deferred sums it up nicely:
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?
No dream should ever explore due to being unfilled. No dream should ever be deferred indefinitely. Dreams are what enable our souls to fly. This award is my dream and I hope to make other women’s dreams come true for many years to come.
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