The Rosewater Foundation – Its Purpose, Development and Inspiration

Welcome to the Rosewater Foundation, a quotations site, and non-profit organization, established in May, 2005. Our mission here is simple. Through this project we hope to provide encouragement, wisdom, and inspiration to anyone reading through the various quotes and documents on our website. Everything we have collected, in the form of essays, editorials, and quotations, affirms the core values and direction of this organization. Secondly, the Rosewater Foundation is the hub of our network of websites that include several online communities, graphic design businesses, as well as information portals for both secular and religious organizations. The following are the most promising of these websites:

The Runway (therunway.ca) was founded in the spring of 2004. As an avid runner, I felt compelled to start my own running club. In pursuit of this goal, the idea developed in many different directions, but eventually an online community emerged as the final product. This project could not have taken place without the help of Kaalum Ross, a good friend and Calgary-based artist, he initiated The Runway logo and created the original runway.ca template.

Quakers (quakers.org) is one of many Conservative Quaker websites that include, my personal blog website, ‘Quaker is the New Punk‘ (quakeristhenewpunk.com), and an online community for Quakers, Quakers Online (quakersonline.org), as well as several multilingual websites for foreign ministries.

Jeepney (jeepney.net) is both an old American military jeep converted into a bus, and our tourist website for the Philippines. We haven’t started working on this project as of yet.

OLGA (olga.org) is an undetermined acronym for what will probably be a guitar website at some point. I have a friend in Kiev named Olga who will be helping me on this one.

Ten Dollar Logos is my little website offering advice for building low cost websites, including advice on affordable logo designers, hosting companies, affiliate marketing and the best content management systems for your projects.

Our Inspiration

The Rosewater Foundation was inspired by Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; a tale about a man born into immense wealth who feels ill at ease with his position of privilege, and disenchanted with its associated obligations. Eliot Rosewater, the novel’s rich eccentric, turns his back on high society to devote his life to serving the poor. Feeling this way about things myself, he became my first hero, and to this day I aspire to be more like him. This site is not only a tribute to Vonnegut’s fictional hero, but to the author himself, as well as to the countless authors and figures, both public and private, who have affirmed my suspicions that the way of life, being lived around me, was not only wrong, but pointed out alternatives for a more compassionate, humane way of being. A list of such individuals can be found in our ‘Quotes’ section, and includes the likes of Terry Fox, E.F. Schumacher, Ivan Illich, William Penn, Mother Teresa, as well as many others.

Our Development

This is the first of many websites being designed and updated using Open Source Software. The Rosewater Foundation is built using a Content Management System called Textpattern. If you would like assistance in developing your own website feel free to contact me. I’m not an expert on these things, but I am learning.

Sincerely, Jim Heil