Blogging in Alphabetical Order, Illness in Homeless

In keeping with blogging in alphabetical order between posts that share donations, we're now at the letter I.

Last time through the alphabet, I blogged about Making an Investment.  
The previous time the letter I was about Inspiration.

Doing a google search for words that start with the letter I, that have a connection to Homelessness I found the following:
Illness
Insecure
Invisible.........among other words.

ILLNESS, jumped out at me.  Doing a bit of research I found a list of the top 10 Health Issues that Homeless People suffer from.

Mortality...and unintential injuries (bruises, cuts, and burns).  Homeless have a higher risk of death.  Listed as some of the highest risks of morbidity and morality are falls and being hit by motor vehicle.  Also listed is overdoses from drugs or alcohol or both.

Exposure is listed a major hazard with frostbite, hypothermia and freezing in cold weather, and severe sunburns, and heatstroke in hot weather due to dehydration.

Suicide is also listed, as is violence.  Violence stats were a combination of assault, rape and murder against the Homeless.

The warm items we knit, crochet or loom can help ward of freezing and hypothermia.  Perhaps sunscreen is something that should be considered for personal care items during the hot months?  First aid kits?  Aloe for both burns and sunburn?

If you have other thoughts about how we might bridge some of the need in this area, please leave a comment or send me a note via the contact form in the right sidebar.  Thank you for reading this blog, Thank you for helping in whatever way you can.

Been awhile since I've listed the alphabetical blogging blogs.  If you've not read or commented on A-H this time round, please do so.



3rd List Blogging in Alphabetical Order.
A=afghans Resurecting Learning Logs.
B=Barnacle Bill and Blogging in Alphabetical Order
C=A Cocoon of Yarn, Blogging in Alphabetical Order
D=Blogging in Alphabetical Order, D=Dog & Homeless
E=Ends, Blogging Alphabetically
F=FEAR, Fibers, and Fun Colors Matter
G=Donald Gould, Homeless in Sarasota, Florida
H=Hard Life, Hovel, Homeless & More, So Sad

**The counts on our progress bars are current. All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

Crying and Homeless and Freezing Temperatures

A-Z Challenge
F = Freezing

Valentines Day George and Joyce Gruss were traveling through Columbus and stopped for a bite to eat at Wendy's on Route 161, right off the freeway with the intention of eating and moving onto their destination.  They noticed a couple near them and the woman was crying.  They seemed very low and down and out and so Joyce and George asked what the problem was.  The couple was homeless, had missed the curfew at the shelter and had no place to go.  It was 8 degrees, with a prediction of going lower as the night progressed.

Wanting to help the couple they took them to a nearby hotel, also on Route 161, The Super 8, and got the couple a room for 3 nights to keep them out of the cold.  They prepaid for the room and left thinking the couple would have a few days reprieve before making their way back to the shelter.   An hour later while Joyce and George were in no longer in Columbus and well on their way, they received a phone call from the hotel saying the weren't letting the couple stay, they were kicking them out.  The couple didn't have any identification.  So, out in the  freezing cold in what was the beginning of the coldest weather of the year the couple went.  No one knows what became of them, or where they went, of if they are ok.  The hotel initially didn't even refund the Gruss's money.  After a large out pouring of negative publicity on social media, their money was refunded.  Super 8 is owned by The Wyndham Hotel Chain.  Petitions gathered large numbers of signatures, again through social media to call this sad fact to the attention of the hotel chain and the general public.  The hotel chain has apologized, but....

The George and Joyce have tried to locate the couple, both by coming back to Columbus and through social media, but my research hasn't turned up anything on that score.

The hotel has had problems before.  Lots of problems with drugs and prostitution.  In fact the hotel had been closed for a period 6 months because of such problems and they were under some pretty tough court guidelines of appropriate action in order to stay open.  They had some business problems, perhaps management problems no doubt.  Does that justify sending a homeless couple out in the freezing cold ...the public outcry would say NO!  Social media can be a wonderful tool.

Yesterdays post, another sad story of being homeless, freezing and dying from exposure, so I do wonder what happened to the couple.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.

PLEASE Stop, I'm freezing

My apology to the folks who got here to the post before I had actually written it.  I schedule things ahead 99.9% of the time, and had this in que, but never got back to complete it before it was published.
This video sadden me so much when I first saw it, that I backed away from writing about it, thus it was there in que ...waiting on me.  This video follows yesterdays post about a man dying.......dying literally from being homeless, from being out in the cold exposed to the elements for too long without whatever he needed to survive.  I don't know if Michael (see yesterday's post) would have lived if he had another meal, or warmer/dry socks or a different place to sleep.........but it gives me pause thinking about it.

And now this?  A child, in New York in the elements for hours (2 I believe it was), before someone came to his rescue.  And it wasn't a wealth person who came to his rescue, it wasn't someone with a good job, it wasn't someone with a child that age at home, it wasn't  with a roof over their head.......no, it was a caring homeless man with little to share, but willing to share it.  He had compassion, he shared a hug, he asked questions, he gave up his coat.  He understood this person needed what he had, he understood he could help.  He understood, that while he couldn't solve the problem and make it go away.........he understood he could do what he could do and that what he could do mattered.

This was an experiment, so this child wasn't going to freeze because it was an experiment.......but all those who passed him by, who stopped to stare didn't know that.  I guess none of us knows how we would react in the same type of situation, I only hope my humanity would overcome and that I would do the right thing.  We are sometimes afraid of those folks who are homeless, because we don't them.  We don't know if it's safe to approach them.  Thankfully this caring homeless man didn't let his fear (if he had any) get in the way of caring for another human being in need.

We can't solve the problem, but we can do, what we can do  AND IT MATTERS.

All donations regardless of size and number are valued. All donations are appreciated. The Power of One is awesome, and when we work together The Power of One becomes The Power of Many.