OUTREACH # 9 UPDATE (Sunday, June 16, 2019)
We wanted to start by thanking a few special people who have generously helped us out this week with some great donations. On Monday morning, my eldest daughter dropped off a few bags of items, including runners, men’s and women’s flip flops, sandals, and multiple baseball caps. Thank you so much, Tiffany and Alan, for being so supportive. It means so much to us and really touches our hearts! I also want to add that up until last Thursday morning, we only had a very few items of men’s clothing left! It was with a touch of sadness that we realized it was going to be a mostly coffee and chat outreach this time, along with maybe handing out some toothbrushes, toothpaste, and toiletries. It was certainly a wonderful surprise when Beau came home from work on Thursday evening with the car stuffed full of men’s clothing! Through another extremely generous donation, we had enough clothing items to completely fill the rack for Sunday! Beau’s co-worked Lianna had arranged to get a donation from another co-worker, Patrick. She then stored all the bags in her garage until Beau picked them up. This was a huge donation of multiple items of clothing and footwear, including many kinds of jackets, hoodies, dress pants, jeans, many styles of shorts, long and short sleeve dress shirts, golf shirts, t-shirts, pajama bottoms, and multiple pairs of boxers and socks. The footwear included slippers, shoes, runners, and sandals.
There was also some fall/winter clothing, like sweaters, coats, scarves, mitts, and hats that we will store until the appropriate season. Also given were blankets, sheets, towels, and a backpack. We thank you both from the bottom of our hearts! It is through these kinds of generous donations that we can keep doing what we are doing, and pass on all these wonderful items to those who really need and appreciate them!
On Wednesday evening I sorted through and organized a rack full of women’s clothing, and on Friday evening Beau and I sorted through and filled the rack full of men’s clothing in anticipation of our next outreach day. On Saturday we dropped off 5 full bags of women’s office wear clothing and shoes as a donation to Interval House. This is a women’s shelter catering to women escaping violence, by giving them a safe place to be and helping them get back on their feet. These suits, dresses, blouses and fancier higher heel shoes would be ideal for job interviews or office jobs. These were still from some of the items we received from Cindy. When I spoke with someone at Interval House, they informed me that they do not take the donations directly because of a lack of storage space. Instead, they have an arrangement with Value Village, that all their clients can go to their local store and shop there at no charge to them. In return, they ask that any donations to them be dropped off at the closest Value Village store, to then give their clients access to these items. What a great service this is for these women!
We had originally planned our Outreach to be on Saturday like usual, but since the weather did not co-operate and it rained most of the day, we postponed it by one day. Sunday, June 16, 2019, was now to be the day for our Outreach # 9. We woke up early to a beautiful sunny morning. The forecast was calling for a warm and sunny “Father’s Day” Sunday! After our meditation and breakfast, we started getting things ready for the day ahead. Beau brewed the coffee while I gather the milk, cream, sugar, etc. We cram-packed the vehicle full of the men’s and women’s clothing, footwear, rack, toiletries, coffee urn, etc., then headed off for our outreach # 9.
We arrived downtown at the Salvation Army somewhere between 11:15
AM and 11:30 AM. As soon as we stepped out of the car, some of the men came over to say good morning. Once we set up the rack and hung up all the clothing, the “Project Dignity” shopping began in a frenzy!
We didn’t even have time to set up the table with coffee before a large group of men surrounded the rack and went about picking and choosing some of the available items. It always amazes me to see that most of these men are very thoughtful towards each other. Almost all the shoppers took only a few items, leaving the chance for others to also find something for themselves! After about 15 minutes, the rack was almost completely empty! By now we also had the coffee set up and everyone was helping themselves to a cup or two. We noticed that there were also a few women around, so we hung up some women’s clothing in their sizes. They were so happy and appreciative as they excitedly looked through the items and picked things that they needed and liked. One of the ladies was thrilled to find a bra in her size, and carefully folded the items that she had chosen. She kept thanking me over and over. It just goes to show that even a little act of kindness can really have a positive impact on someone’s life, even if it is just for a little while! Once things started to slow down, we packed up the vehicle with the intention of also setting up in front of the Shepherds of Good Hope, where there are often a lot of women hanging about outside. Alas, every single parking spot was already taken! It was at this point that we decided since we already had such a great, successful day, we would just head home. Most of the coffee was already gone, as well as 1/3 of the rack of women’s clothing. We might have to contact someone at the Shepherds location, to see if we can get permission to park in their parking lot on our outreach days, instead of trying to find parking on the busy road in front! As we were on our drive home, we again spoke of how none of it would have been possible without all the donations, but also that we are now faced with the exact same scenario! We have practically no more men’s clothing or footwear! Hopefully, we will experience another “miracle” before our next planned outreach in less than two weeks!
We again want to thank each and every one of you for any and all donations! Without all of you, we couldn’t do what we do!