On Nov. 21, an alert and aware OnMilwaukee.com reader "misskriss" posted a blog that was near and dear to my heart. Titled, "Do you know the whereabouts of a notorious (a slight misuse of the word as Ed wasn't 'unfavorably known' as notorious is generaly used) Downtown homeless man?" Misskriss' blog told the story of a well-known and extremely friendly homeless guy, Eddie Henderson, who has lived in and around Downtown Milwaukee for the past 2-3 years.
I know Eddie, have taken walks with him, helped him out and was, like misskriss, concerned that I hadn't seen him in several weeks. I had faith, though, that he was OK and my faith was enforced recently with a call from Beth Nicols, executive director of Milwaukee Downtown, the Business Improvement District in our Downtown area.
I forwarded misskriss' blog to Nicols and many others asking for their help. My wife and I have also been asking around trying to find more information on Ed's whereabouts.
Nicols and her great team of PSAs reached out to homeless advocates to help with the search. She called me yesterday with the good news.
"We've been informed that Eddie is safe and sound. He's living with his sister in Racine," said Nicols.
It's interesting when you strike a relationship with a homeless person. Not to sound trite, but it's a different sort of friendship, probably just because Eddie was about the only homeless person that I've ever spent a lot of time with.
Anyway, I'm glad, relived and thankful that he's OK and certain that others will feel the same too. I'm also thankful for our readers and our Readers' Blogs as they allowed misskriss to help bring her concerns to our wonderful community.
A life-long and passionate community leader and Milwaukeean, Jeff Sherman is a co-founder of OnMilwaukee.
He grew up in Wauwatosa and graduated from Marquette University, as a Warrior. He holds an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, and is the founding president of Young Professionals of Milwaukee (YPM)/Fuel Milwaukee.
Early in his career, Sherman was one of youngest members of the Greater Milwaukee Committee, and currently is involved in numerous civic and community groups - including board positions at The Wisconsin Center District, Wisconsin Club and Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. He's honored to have been named to The Business Journal's "30 under 30" and Milwaukee Magazine's "35 under 35" lists.
He owns a condo in Downtown and lives in greater Milwaukee with his wife Stephanie, his son, Jake, and daughter Pierce. He's a political, music, sports and news junkie and thinks, for what it's worth, that all new movies should be released in theaters, on demand, online and on DVD simultaneously.
He also thinks you should read OnMilwaukee each and every day.
