I wrote a couple of posts about my new friends and their plan to feed Ohio City homeless for Thanksgiving. We had a great time and it was so nice to see some regular people pulling together to do what they can for those in need.From their facebook page:
Feed a Friend is a grassroots community outreach that is designed to remember and help our friends in need this Christmas holiday. As we prepare to spend time with our friends and family, we ask that you take time to remember those in our community who are not as fortunate. These are friends that many of us have yet to meet but they live in our community, on our streets and in our hearts. If you have it in your heart to help with your time or a donation of food or funds, please call Tracey Dillard at 216-210-9069.
A little more information…Tracey and Mischelle are putting together a plan to make and deliver Christmas care packages and dinner to the homeless in our community where they live on the street as opposed to providing meals within the shelter. If you are interested in helping or blogging about the effort, please contact Tracey or Mischelle directly and they’ll be thrilled to give you more information.
Donations from Starbucks and a couple of fruit/vegetable vendors from the West Side Market have already been secured but anything that you can do to help make as big of an impact as possible would be appreciated. Whether it’s helping with your time, food donation, suggesting friends that might be able to help, blogging about it, spreading the word through your status update, giving thoughts on places where the most impact might be made during this time frame, and/or thoughts on where this might be needed most, etc… every little bit you can do will go a long way.
We are looking for your Help with these items : Coats, Gloves, Scraves, Mittens, Blankets, Sleepingbags, Bookbags, Sweathers/Sweatshirts, Food and/or Funds.
WE TRULY APPRECIATE THAT ALL THE HELP AND SUPPORT FOR THANKSGIVING, IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!
Thank you in advance for your assistance with Christmas! Remember a little can go a long way!
So I know that you have an extra coat that you don’t need, an ugly Christmas sweater that you can get rid of without guilt, or a scarf that you are not wearing anymore. Why not collect all your unused clothing items and help these folks make the holidays a little bit nicer for those who will truly appreciate it. Ask your family and friends and see what they can spare. No extra clothes? What about a blanket, sleeping bag, or hand warmers. Even an old pillow can be a gift from heaven for someone living on the streets. Get some extra toothbrushes on sale? Deodorant? Soap? What we take for granted can be mean a lot to someone whose whole life fits in a bag-for that matter, a backpack can be a great gift for someone who keeps everything they own in one. Don’t worry, it will all go to a good cause. If there are leftovers, we know of several great churches and service agencies who can use any leftovers! Pick up a cheap scarf or an extra bar of soap for someone who needs it…stuff someone’s stocking with hope. Since Thanksgiving, they have also set up an email address and paypal account. You can send your words of encouragement to feedafriend@email.com and use that email address if you can spare a few dollars to help buy food for the Christmas dinner. This is a grassroots organization. All money raised will go directly to help Cleveland’s homeless. Let me share an email that I got after Thanksgiving:
We cooked and prepared food and care packages through the night and on Thanksgiving day all of the volunteers arrived at the house ready and eager to help. By noon, we hit the streets on the near west side where we found a lady going through a trash can near Fulton Park. We approached her and offered her a care package and hot coffee. She was completely caught off-guard but, at the same time, so grateful. At first, she wouldn’t make eye contact. She just kept her head down repeating “thank you, thank you!”. She finally looked up when we told her “Happy Thanksgiving”! The look of gratitude and appreciation on her face is one that we will never forget. Our spirits soared! We covered areas from the streets of the near west side to downtown Cleveland at the vents, where people sleep at night to stay warm. Everyone we encountered had the same reaction – surprise at first and then just complete gratitude. Many wanted to know if we were affiliated with some group or program. We just told them we wanted to do what we could to help a friend.
Wo while you are out pick up a spare stocking cap for that friend you haven’t met.
