- Legacy Giving Stories
The S. Portia Steele Memorial Scholarship for Jewish Women provides an annual scholarship for qualified Jewish women pursuing an academic degree in creative writing, English, or journalism. When Portia Steele died in 2005 her husband, Dennis Steele, chose to memorialize his beloved friend and wife of 40 years by establishing a Named Endowment Fund at JFCS in her honor.
During her writing career in Burlingame, California, Portia was the founder and instructor of Women on Writing©, a seminar for published writers sponsored by the Daly City Senior Center. Between 1992 and 2002, as the Center’s facilitator, she helped scores of women pursue their writing and publishing careers. She went on to publish Prosetry©, a monthly newsletter that was enjoyed by subscribers from 11 countries around the world. Many promising poets and storytellers had their works published for the first time in this publication.
The outstanding students who receive the S. Portia Steele Memorial Scholarship carry forward Portia’s legacy of creativity and community.
Click here to make a gift to the S. Portia Steele Memorial Scholarship for Jewish Women.
Shared from the Heart
The Poet
I do not write the poem
it writes me.
The hand moves as the heart dictates,
crying, laughing
with sadness and love.
The Poet is not a writer
the Poet is a doer,
a lover of living
feeling, being.
The Poet is a doer of herself,
a projector
of passion and the passionate.
I cannot write the poem,
it must endure in me.
Screams in my soul
slither down my pen and be,
so I can be.
Ache becomes word
pain becomes sentence
The impossible becomes a poem.
I am not the poet
I am the Poem.
Portia Steele
Kaleidoscope
1987
If you would like to establish a Named Endowment Fund, please contact [email protected] or 415-449-3858.