Merry Christmas everyone.

[Walrus]

Every year I usually volunteer at a soup kitchen or shelter. I went to one a month ago and they asked if I’d take a paid position running the overflow part of a city shelter. I took it and for the last month or month and a half I had to do grants, get funding and set up food donations etc. we have a shortage of warm clothes and socks. I wanted to suggest if anyone had the time or ability do donate old jackets etc to your local shelters to consider it.

Best part of the job is talking with the residents. Very sad stories but many are in the process of rebuilding their lives, some are just strung out but we are all human. I do have a watch story with this but I’ll tell it some other time. I’m glad I got this position, it’s not glamorous but I like being able to lend a hand. So many off use are fortunate here which is great but a small thing like a package of socks can make a difference. We had one guy who wore one pair of socks so long they actually embedded into his skin and needed to be surgically removed.

Don’t want to end on a negative note these guys are survivors they just need a little help

Hope it’s a great Christmas for you and your families.

Edited: Dec 21, 2019

 

[Walrus]

Just thought I’d update this. Right before Christmas someone broke into the administrative part of the shelter. We had 1,000’s of dollars of gift cards we were going to hand out for Christmas to the homeless and they were all stolen. It made the news and for the next few days people were stopping by regularly giving gift cards when they heard of the loss. One random gentleman handed me a 500 dollar visa gift card which we gave to a mother with two daughters staying at the place. So it was a yin yang type of thing. Good to see the people in the area took the time to respond.

The whole scene can be interesting. Many people who end up homeless had previous life’s in which they were prosperous but a negative event, be it self created or one of those bolts of lightening that hit from time to time led them to quite a bottom and requiring these services. I was doing an intake on one gentleman and noticed he was wearing a seiko world timer. At one time he was a watch collector and the world timer was the last piece he hasn’t sold. Odd I’ve been looking for one. I told him to try to hang on to it as it was in good condition and a nice vintage one, I’d hate to see him sell it at a pawn shop for 50 bucks but he will do what he needs to do.

Another demographic of homeless are guys who have been institutionalized in our overzealous criminal justice system. Now they are stuck. The other night I brought my dinner which included two Coca-Cola’s to get me through a twelve hour shift. One of the dudes figured he’d get over and steal one of my cokes. Tonight I’m going to bring in a few liters of soda for them. If your desperate enough to steal someone’s soda you must really have the taste for it.