Feeling Very Thankful
Last night, the Arizona Parrot Heads served up a spaghetti dinner at a local transitional housing center. Being Parrot Heads, we brought more than enough food. They've got plenty of spaghetti, salad and bread leftovers. We also stocked them up on juice, cereal, snacks and fruit.
The folks (there are 500 there currently) that stay at the center range from infants to people in their 60s (based on whom I saw). There are complete family units, singles and single parent groups. Everyone who stays there has to perform some duties (cleaning, cooking, etc.) in order to stay. There's no free ride.
However, there is a lot of help. They get personal and job counseling, housing assistance and job placement and training. The goal is to get these folks off the streets and into productive jobs and homes. It's the kind of place that you wish didn't have to exist but are darn happy it does.
It's not the most pleasant of facilities, though. It's an old hotel on Van Buren (pretty crappy part of Phoenix) and they have severe roof leaks during storms, electrical problems (their power went out last week and they're running on generators - the A/C just got turned back on a few days ago) and it's just plain old and fairly decrepit. There is a plan for improvement. They're going to put in $15 million to renovate the housing buildings and the attached day care center. That's a chunk of change and it will no doubt take several years to get it all done.
For the most part, everyone we served was very polite and thankful. One woman told some of our group, "Do me a favor. When you get home tonight and close your front door, think about how lucky you are to have a home." That got several people choked up.
Afterwards, some of us went to the Day's Inn across the street to catch the end of the Suns game in their sports bar. There were two women in there watching the game and one started talking to us before we all realized we'd just served them dinner. They said thanks several times and left after the game.
I am just as thankful as they were.
Thankful that I had a home of my own to go to instead of an old hotel room.
Thankful that I was out with my friends watching the game, drinking Miller Lite and having dinner instead of having to rely on someone else to provide my dinner and only being able to drink water while out at the bar (that's all they had while they were there).
Thankful that there are people like the ones who fund and run that center and people like us who volunteer their time and services to help it run so that some folks can get a hand up and move out of homelessness and hopelessness.
Thankful to get reminders like these to reinforce just how fortunate I am.
The folks (there are 500 there currently) that stay at the center range from infants to people in their 60s (based on whom I saw). There are complete family units, singles and single parent groups. Everyone who stays there has to perform some duties (cleaning, cooking, etc.) in order to stay. There's no free ride.
However, there is a lot of help. They get personal and job counseling, housing assistance and job placement and training. The goal is to get these folks off the streets and into productive jobs and homes. It's the kind of place that you wish didn't have to exist but are darn happy it does.
It's not the most pleasant of facilities, though. It's an old hotel on Van Buren (pretty crappy part of Phoenix) and they have severe roof leaks during storms, electrical problems (their power went out last week and they're running on generators - the A/C just got turned back on a few days ago) and it's just plain old and fairly decrepit. There is a plan for improvement. They're going to put in $15 million to renovate the housing buildings and the attached day care center. That's a chunk of change and it will no doubt take several years to get it all done.
For the most part, everyone we served was very polite and thankful. One woman told some of our group, "Do me a favor. When you get home tonight and close your front door, think about how lucky you are to have a home." That got several people choked up.
Afterwards, some of us went to the Day's Inn across the street to catch the end of the Suns game in their sports bar. There were two women in there watching the game and one started talking to us before we all realized we'd just served them dinner. They said thanks several times and left after the game.
I am just as thankful as they were.
Thankful that I had a home of my own to go to instead of an old hotel room.
Thankful that I was out with my friends watching the game, drinking Miller Lite and having dinner instead of having to rely on someone else to provide my dinner and only being able to drink water while out at the bar (that's all they had while they were there).
Thankful that there are people like the ones who fund and run that center and people like us who volunteer their time and services to help it run so that some folks can get a hand up and move out of homelessness and hopelessness.
Thankful to get reminders like these to reinforce just how fortunate I am.
