Volume 6-
The best word to describe tonight would be Unity. Traci and I packed the Denali to the gills with your generous blessings. We spent some time with a few of the other volunteers before we left. Stan has some neat people at his side. We hit the streets right as the temperature began to drop. We could see the last flirtatious rays of sunlight lay to rest behind the city skyline. We looked forward to the warm lit up evenings that would be here before we knew it, but not soon enough. We waited in the cold for a few minutes before the people began showing up.
I noticed a man sitting down on the ground in the parking lot near where we were. I watched him for a minute, and then I knew. I asked him if he wanted a sandwich. He said, “Oh wow! Yeah! That would be great!” I told him I had a healthy meal for him, plus homemade rice crispy treats. He also needed a blanket and a survival bag as well. He grumbled a lot about how hard it was for him to be homeless, and how forgotten he felt. The more he grumbled, the more we put in his bag: socks, then gloves, then sweatshirts and and he just kept thanking us until he finally wasn’t grumbling anymore! We saw a familiar friend from the week before. He made sure he remembered the right day this time. He thanked us a bunch for the food. I told him about Ann’s homemade rice crispy treats, and I thought he was going to do a darned jig. I mean, who wouldn’t? We had clothes in his size. He was very thankful. He also thanked us later on after we had helped a friend of his stay warm, clean, and fed, too.
I was excited by all of the return customers we had tonight. And they brought their friends! Which means Traci and I have really earned trust in a subculture which is hyper-cautious by nature.
We didn’t go to as many places. We were in the places we went to for a longer time. Believe it or not, we were out of blankets in an hour and a half. They’re nice blankets, so I only need to hand out 1 per person. Traci and I were stunned. We’ve worked on a way to fit more blankets in the truck. We passed out a lot of boots. The only ones we have left are the sizes no one needed. And that was only 2 or 3 of the 15 or more that we brought. Only a couple of bags, and a couple of purses were left. We had at least 40 or more with us. We passed out all the sweat shirts hoodies, men’s pants, and every pair of pants size 4 and under. We met many new people this week and took down there sizes so that we can bring them the clothes they need next week. I can’t count the number of times I had to say, “I have it, but I didn’t have room to bring it this time. I’ll bring it here with me next Tuesday. So far every single person has been there the next week.
Remember my buddy from last week who asked us to call his mom for him? Traci called her and talked to her on the phone at length about her son, her clothes sizes (18), and a bit of life in general. She’s 80 and lives with her sister. Traci made a care package/wardrobe for her that we will deliver later this week. Her son asked Traci tonight, if she was Traci. And he wanted to thank her from the bottom of his heart because her phone call made his mom so happy.
There was an adorable gaggle of senior men who were excited and impressed with what we were doing for people there. They had heard about us, and wanted to come see for themselves. One of the ladies is in her ’70’s. I was glad to know that we had her size in the donations at my house. We can’t wait to see the look on her face next Tuesday!
The last stop of the night was the most important one to us. We’ve established a friendship with one the young ladies that we met the first night we went out to Detroit this year. She’s a sweetheart. She has good taste. She makes a point of chatting with us every week we see her. The other day, she had one of the volunteers contact me. She just wanted us to know that her boyfriends house burned down. She had lost everything. That was were she kept her stuff safe. I went to work on those donations. All she had were the clothes on her back that she was wearing. We found a big black duffel bag and packed it with a few pair of jeans, a few warm shirts, socks, sports-bra, boots, coat, survival bag, a couple of funky bonus things that people threw into their donation bags, and some extra snacks. I also gave her 2 meals, and a bunch of banana’s. That’s the picture above. That’s us passing out your heartfelt donations to a homeless girl on the street, who as of 5 minutes before that picture was taken, didn’t own anything she wasn’t already wearing. One of the other volunteers was thoughtful enough to take the picture for us. I think I want to frame it.
She’s a good person in a bad spot. She knew we would have her back. And we did. She also asks us for clothes for some of the other girls we see but are too shy to ask. They are just the tiniest sweetest things!
We really got to know some of the other volunteer groups that go out. It’s a team effort. The most common complaint from every volunteer is that we can never seem to bring enough for everyone. The need is so great. It took less than four hours to empty that truck. Our mini-dream is to rent a vehicle large enough to fit everything we could go through in one night. A nonprofit can dream big too.
Community- we Come in Unity. One species. One collective. One motivation. To survive.
You came together and donated of your very self to better someone else’s world.
The volunteers came together to heal, feed, and protect, the most vulnerable members of my society.
The community of homeless people came together and let everyone who they believed needed to know that there was food, warmth, and cleanliness provided by Magdalene’s Mission on Tuesday evenings.
The purses are still a hit to be raved about and that is always satisfying to hear.
The last note of the night, as Traci and I were pulling away from our spot for the night and up to the corner, a loud firetruck raced past us. About a half mile up the road we saw a car flipped over on its side with everything smashed out of it. Stan’s Covenant Care van was parked right in the middle of the mayhem. I was grateful that he was so close by that he and his volunteers could help immediately. It was in the exact spot were we had all been in, not even an hour earlier. That’s our hero Stan. Right in the middle of a situation that no one else would ever want to be in. Saving lives and changing outcomes. It’s 2:50 a.m. Don’t call me. I’ll call you.
