Heidy Kellison - 2021 (Brinley)
When Heidy Kellison was struggling with postpartum depression after the birth of her son in 1998, she found solace in an unlikely place — at a haberdashery a stroll away from home in Sacramento.
Heidy Kellison. Enterprise file photo
Steve Benson, owner of S Benson & Co., was a parent himself and provided a lifeline of sorts to Kellison and her infant.
“I’d be crying and I could stay there and talk to him in the middle of the afternoon and he’d just talk me through it,” Kellison recalls. “It was a small business that reached out to me in my time of need and I really credit him for just being available to me.”
To this day, Kellison recommends that kind of retail therapy.
“Our businesses are our meeting places,” she said. “That’s where we go to see each other, that’s how we connect with people.
“If someone is having a bad day and they don’t know what to do and don’t have a friend available, I always recommend they go to a small business, because they don’t necessarily care if you’re there to buy anything,” she said. “They’re just happy you come in.”
“It always lifts me up.”
Heidi Kellison of Downtown Norcal takes a photo of husband-and-wife owners Michael Yackey and Cara Bradley, who hosted a virtual ribbon cutting ceremony Sunday morning at the new West Davis Veterinary Center at 1617 Russell Blvd. Owen Yancher/Enterprise file photo
Over the ensuing 20-plus years, particularly after moving to Davis in 2001, promoting small, local businesses has been a passion for Kellison and one that profoundly impacted business owners in Davis during the pandemic, as Kellison tirelessly promoted them on social media and in her blog.
In one case, when Cindy’s Restaurant in South Davis was on the verge of closing, Kellison went out to interview the owner.
“That video got over 10,000 views and… it was just extraordinary how people responded and kept them afloat,” said Kellison.
She did multiple interviews like that every week.
“We could never thank Heidy enough for her efforts to keep us relevant during the pandemic,” said Kelli Fuller, owner of Spa Central. “Her interviews let all businesses have a platform to discuss their concerns and needs. She’s nothing short of amazing.”
Kellison’s volunteer efforts on behalf of the small businesses that serve as an economic lifeline for the city of Davis are just one of the reasons she is this year’s recipient of the city’s Brinley Award for outstanding service to the Davis community.
Heidy Kellison with Yolo Crisis Nursery supporters at a 2014 Yolo County Board of Supervisors Meeting. Heidy Kellison/Courtesy photo
Many would say her impact on the lives of children and families has been even greater.
Beginning with her arrival in Davis in 2001, when she became founding president of the Friends of the Yolo Crisis Nursery — and was instrumental in keeping the nursery’s doors open during a funding crisis in 2014 — to her work today as a First 5 Yolo commissioner, Kellison’s dedication to young children remains steadfast.
“She’s a true champion for our youngest children and families,” said fellow First 5 Yolo commissioner Nichole Arnold.
“Heidy’s empathy and care for her community is exactly what we need in this world.”
She was nominated for the Brinley award by Gina Daleiden, a former Davis school board trustee and current executive director of First 5 Yolo.
Kellison, said Daleiden, “has initiated and led multiple successful efforts to improve the quality of life in our community, in particular for those who lack the voice to advocate for themselves.
“Heidy has repeatedly demonstrated that she is a resource to the community in the whole; that rare individual who, when unexpected and urgent situations arise, rallies the community in creative and effective ways.”
There’s no better example than the crisis nursery, which provides emergency overnight care for children ages 0-5 whose parents are in crisis.
In 2014, when EMQ FamiliesFirst, which had served as the nursery’s host agency, announced it would no longer do so, leaving the future of the nursery in question, Kellison stepped in.
“Heidy catalyzed and led the effort to save YCN from closure when the host agency submitted one month’s notice they would close the nursery,” Daleiden’s nomination letter noted.
“She negotiated a delay in closure to allow an intensive community effort to rescue the nursery. She galvanized state and local officials, rallied the community, and raised nearly $400,000 in three months to keep the nursery’s doors open.”
Then, to ensure ongoing stability, “she recruited four other founding board members to create a new stand-alone nonprofit, the Yolo Crisis Nursery, which still successfully serves children and families today.”
Said Joellen Welsch, president of the Yolo Crisis Nursery: “Heidy’s fierce determination and advocacy was instrumental in ensuring the nursery remain open, and she continues to this day as a driving force to help us fulfill our vision that every child grow up in a safe, loving and stable home.”
That vision is what drives her.
“Every day I wake up and think about kids and ask, ‘How are we supporting their families?’ Kellison said.
One of her favorite quotes, she added, is from Maya Angelou: “Children’s talent to endure stems from their ignorance of alternatives.”
“And that stops me in my tracks,” said Kellison, “because… while children may seem to endure, they become very dysfunctional adults and we cannot ignore how expensive that is — the cost of families and everything they pass down, as well as what society copes with. There’s got to be a better way and the better way in my mind is so clearly, obviously, definitely children.
“I really do imagine a world where every child can grow up safe and loved. And with opportunity.”
As a First 5 Yolo commissioner (and current vice chair), Kellison has been instrumental in organizing support for Welcome Baby, a pandemic-response program that provides home visits to new mothers within one week of delivery. Both the city of Davis and Yolo County have signaled support for the program, which targets the most at-risk families of newborns in the county.
It’s the sort of program that is so meaningful to Kellison, in part given her experience with postpartum depression.
“I had a very personal experience around wanting to be there for kids, understanding that means being there for their parents,” she noted.
And she sees that work as very much much connected with her advocacy on behalf of small businesses where so many of the owners are parents as well.
During the pandemic, Kellison noted, “a lot of the businesses I would be covering were from communities of color and disproportionately impacted.
“Small business is a really serious way that communities of color can actually get ahead, or have an advantage, because they aren’t advantaged in typical job application processes,” Kellison noted.
“Heidy has been supportive of our black-owned small business at a time when we are struggling to survive,” said Dzokerayi Mu, owner of Zim Cuisine. “She deserves recognition for the way she skillfully engages the community in supporting small businesses.”
But Kellison’s advocacy in Davis and the larger community is not limited to children, families and small businesses.
She is a board member for Unleashing the Possibilities, a private group working to match private and public dollars to develop a new animal shelter for Yolo County as well as a new approach to animal services.
She also serves on the Davis Cemetery District Board, where efforts are now underway to create a community COVID-19 memorial.
And behind the scenes of all of this public service, Kellison had had to deal with ongoing medical issues, including a diagnosis several years ago of muscular dystrophy. That diagnosis followed a 25-year odyssey of trying to determine what was ailing her. She subsequently suffered a bout with Tarlov cyst disease, a rare condition that left Kellison bedridden.
“So I know what it’s like to have your world kind of crash. And that was really hard,” Kellison said. “But it builds your compassion and, in me, instills a greater responsibility because I have an awareness of suffering that others might not and I also have an appreciation for how fragile life is.”
“It’s a hard thing to deal with, but I also know I have good days and on good days, I want to help somebody who’s having a bad one.”
As for being named the recipient of the Brinley award, Kellison said, “I was absolutely floored.
“You hope that you make a dent in life. And you don’t have the same feedback you get when you get a promotion and have a paycheck even. So I can’t describe how meaningful it is for other people to think my life has mattered and I’m deserving of that award.”
“It’s really hard to take in,” she said, and “unspeakably lovely.”
Said Daleiden: “Heidy is an effective community leader with heart and compassion, fighting for the underserved, the invisible, and all those who need her.
“Her word is her bond, and she devotes herself entirely and selflessly. To those who know her work, and to the thousands whose lives she has touched, she is pivotal. We can think of no one more deserving of a Davis community award.”
— From the Davis Enterprise - December 28, 2021. Reach Anne Ternus-Bellamy at aternus@davisenterprise.net. Follow her on Twitter at @ATernusBellamy.
