Street Roots vendor profile: Aspiring to feed his neighbors
Silver Wolf shares his passion for cooking, drawing and board games
Editor’s note: Street Roots has allowed the NW Examiner to share profiles of vendors who primarily work in our neighborhoods.
BY WINTER WAGNER
Silver Wolf’s motto when it comes to selling Street Roots is “dress to impress.”
He believes in the importance of presenting as a proper salesman. Having sold papers with Street Roots for three years now, he greatly values the support the organization provides, especially now that he’s on medical leave from his full-time job.
Silver Wolf hails from a small town outside of Charleston, S.C. When he was there, he enjoyed crawfishing and “gator throwing.”
“If you see a gator, I take and throw rocks at them to spook them out of the way,” he said.
He has been in Portland for four years. He loves it here, and one of the reasons is because he’s near his favorite team, the Seattle Seahawks, who will meet the New England Patriots on Sunday in the Super Bowl. Seeing one of their games live at a stadium is easily on his bucket list.
“They’re doing good this year,” he said.
Silver Wolf was born with scoliosis. He describes his spine as the shape of an S. With a tear in his sciatic nerve, the pain is chronic. When it comes to surgery, he’s nervous about losing his mobility, even temporarily, as it hinders his ability to work and get around. For him, he’d prefer an alternative to surgery altogether.
But his life is full of all sorts of different passions. He is a diverse creator, with interests comprising various subjects including cooking, drawing and board games — all things he has been doing since he was a young child.
He grew up learning to cook from his grandmother.
“I am a four-star Italian cuisine chef,” he said.
From the time he was 6 years old, he was learning her “tips and tricks” on how to make a meal regardless of how little they had on hand. Thanks to her, he knows how to get creative with limited ingredients and can prepare well-rounded meals regardless. He likes to cook pasta, meatballs and especially enjoys cooking homemade Italian-style pilaf. With his talent for cooking, one of his many aspirations includes hosting a potluck fundraiser for human services organizations including Street Roots or making large batches of meals to give out to community members in need in Southwest Portland.
He has an abundance of aspirations, including a dream of opening a business that is a combination of a restaurant, dispensary and board game store. Silver Wolf has a knack for design, from recipes to characters. He creates characters through drawings, garnering inspiration from games like Warhammer 40,000, which is one of the board games he enjoys.
Where he is an artist, his brother is a writer. Together, they’re working on a sci-fi novel combining skill sets with the hope of eventually turning it into a game.
You can find Silver Wolf selling newspapers any day of the week outside of Rocket Fizz on Southwest Sixth Avenue. You can also tip him via @StreetRoots Venmo, by entering his name and badge number (1031) in the memo.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly publication focusing on economic, environmental and social justice issues. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
Nice!