Q: How about the portrayal of community help from local and national charities in The Wire? How is the
Ella Thompson Fund doing? Can we donate in exchange for getting our real names spoken in the show? [Linda in Florida]A: The Ella Thompson Fund has raised more than $500,000 for rec programming for the kids of West Baltimore and Miss Ella, bless her, would be proud and of course a little embarrassed to be causing that kind of fuss. Still, I can't think of a better use for that fine woman's memory, and the fund has become The Wire's major sponsored charity in Baltimore.
The fund is part of the Parks & People Foundation for Baltimore City, and information about it can be obtained by visiting www.ellafund.org. It is a 501C3 charity and all contributions are tax deductible. The long-term plan for the fund is to achieve a $1 million endowment that will allow the fund to survive in perpetuity while providing an annual stipend that funds rec programming for children at the Westside rec centers where Ella worked. For those desiring to learn the entire remarkable life of this lady, I can suggest either reading The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood or watching the resulting HBO mini-series, The Corner.
Each season, during production, The Wire sponsors a charity auction at which various items including lunches with actors, set visits, passes to the show's wrap party, a chance to be "robbed" by Omar (water-pistol only), etc. - are sold to fans and other supporters of the fund. Last season's event raised more than $160,000 for the fund. We will undertake one last charity auction next year and will announce the date of same shortly. The attendance is limited by the size of the venue only; tickets do cost some, but most of the cast is usually in attendance, as well as writers and much of the crew, depending on the filming schedule. I'd like to invite everyone to make the trip to Baltimore for the cause as this will certainly be the last sponsored event of its kind for The Wire. In response to Linda's query above, we will make the chance to have your name spoken in the show one of the auction items.
Let me also make another offer, now that I have the floor here: If anyone chooses to include the Ella Thompson Fund in their end of the year charity contributions this year, I will personally match their donation. If anyone sends a check to the Ella Fund and writes "Homicide: Links on The Sites" in the memo, I will do the same and for the same amount.
I'm callin' y'all out. We've been spectators this year to all the attendant problems that confront children growing up in West Baltimore and how long the odds are for so many of these kids. Ella did make a difference and her memory can still make a difference and I don't care if that sounds like pablum; I don't have faith in much politically or institutionally, but the chance that individuals can make themselves matter is something that can't be denied.
Randy, Dukie, Namond, Michael are fictional, but they are based with precision on some of the young men we saw Ella Thompson work with years ago at the MLK Rec Center, and some of the kids that Ed Burns had in those seventh-grade classes at Hamilton Middle. If this season speaks to you, then there remains a distinct way to speak to children very much like them.
One last note: There is a brief scene where Michael goes looking for his brother at the MLK Rec Center and is told by a young lady playing "Miss Ella" that Bug was picked up by his father. The actress portraying Ella Thompson is Denise Preddy, who was fourteen when we meet her years ago at the MLK rec center, where she and her brothers were effectively being raised by Ella; their mother having lost herself in the streets in a struggle with addiction. Denise has grown into a fine person and a good mother and some of that is to be credited to her long relationship with Ella Thompson, who had such affection for her. It was a delight to have Neecee portray one of her mentors.
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