Blogging in Alphabetical order today brings us to the letter U. There'a USA Today article and video, some of which I saw on Facebook. There's also a CNN story, a separate Facebook Page with information about a man named Jason Winter, a trailer, homeless being able to take a shower. Jason started out small with a friends collecting clothes, warm items as it was winter at the time. As time passed and the weather changed he asked some of the homeless folks what they really needed or wanted if they pick. They said showers. He's out fitted a portable shower he can haul around that holds 125 gallons of water, generally enough for 27 showers. Jason started a company called Hope and Soap. Every Sat morning he and friends and volunteers have block parties. He cooks up hotdogs, puts on music and people line up to get a shower and while waiting can select from donated clean cloths to put on once they've showered. The USA today article I read was written by Daniella Barker.
Take a look at the video, associated with Daniella's article(link above), or look it up on Facebook, google for the CNN article. It's a wonderful story of human kindness. With all the negative we see and hear daily, it's nice to read some positive stories about the good that people do. Jason has his block parties in Atlanta. **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.
Guess who's been busy...come on guess. I bet those of you who visit frequently get like me and can identify some of the donators by what they donate. Knitted mittens that always make me squeal with delight and or dance in the streets, lol. You got it. This wonderful donation is from our good friend in Florida, Sandra R. Hats in a variety of sizes and colors and mittens to warm lots of hands! Thank you Sandra.
AND....look at this pretty afghan, crocheted corner to corner. I LOVE these colors. Very pretty. The afghan is sized nicely to keep adults warm, and the stitch selection is nice and solid.......therefore, nice and warm. I swear I think Sandra must knit and crochet in her sleep. I don't know how she get's so much done. Many thanks, and please keep up the good work. **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.
Thank you Sandie P from Louisiana for your thoughtful donation of crocheted scarves and a hat.....and thank you for your long time support of Bridge and Beyond and Ohio's Homeless. Love the blues in both scarves. Blue works for everyone, male or female...young or not so young. A good versatile color. The nice dark hat will keep another head warmer, and dryer. Believe it or not, we've seen the weather turn already. Most of last week we had temps that only reached in the low 60's...even during the day. I fear fall has come early. We have warmed up this week, but ...watching the squirrels, I think we're in for a long hard winter that experts say will be colder and wetter than normal. It also seems like it might come earlier than normal. Those squirrels are preparing a lot more than I've seen in recent years. Keep your yarn, your knitting needles, and crochet hooks busy folks. As always, Sandie, please keep up the good work. **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.
We've all seen ads on TV about tiny houses, people living simply, choosing that in order to travel...but, I'm talking about a different type of tiny houses. Several articles have indicted perhaps the first village for tiny houses to house the homeless was in Oregon, a place called Dignity Village. Portland City fathers were continually raiding, moving and breaking up various tent cities in the the downtown area; but in a matter of days a new tent city would take it place. Homelessness was on the rise and shelters simply couldn't keep up. A solution came about when city fathers and homeless people started working together (2001). Private donations,and volunteers without government financing built a village of tiny houses to house 65 residence on donated land. Mark Lakeman was the Architect. The theory was multi-layered. House the homeless, lessen environmental strains on the community. Statistics indicated that houses were becoming larger and larger, and people were spread farther apart; therefore not knowing or caring about neighbors. From 1950--2012 the average square footage of a family rose from from 983 to 2500. This village has been successfully run by self government of the residence who live there without oversite. There are other similar communities around the country, some modeled after this village...some with local backing and or some governmental funds. I'm not aware of any such villages in my area. In my google research for this post, it seems many of these little villages of tiny homes dot the map in Oregon, Washington, California, and Colorado. I plan to do some follow up about the possibility of one in Akron, Ohio; so stayed tuned. **A good deal of the info above was gleaned from an article titled, "Solution to Homelessness" by Georgia Perry. Credit for the above picture goes to her as well. Please turn on your sound and watch this video for additional information about tiny houses.
**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.
Blogging in alphabetical order brings us to the letter S today. Doing a google search for words that start with the letter S and have a connection to homelessness produced a rather large list. Here are some that stood out to me: Safety Scorn Scrounge Secret Shame Smell Sleeping Squalor Stench Survival Suspicion No doubt as you read through that list of words, you have thoughts perhaps even pictures pop in your heads, or maybe experiences where those words were used. The sad thing is, those aren't happy words...they aren't words when put in the context of being homeless make you smile, or feel comfortable. Safety is truly a concern. For multiple reasons. Sometimes homeless have reason to fear for their safety from Police, sometimes from other homeless, sometimes from ordinary citizens. Many homeless feel scorn from passers by. Or when they try to order something to eat at a fast food restaurant and are asked to leave, or see looks of scorn from other patrons. Many homeless scrounge for food, water, clothing, money, a safe place to sleep. Many homeless are secretive about where they sleep, some for safety reasons. Most homeless do smell because they live in the elements, they can't bath or launder their cloths...certainly not with any regularity. When it's been really long, the smell because more of a stench because they may be living in squalor. Shame...yes many feel shame, because they're in that situation in the first place. Maybe they feel shame because they lost their job and can't support themselves or their families. Many homeless live daily with others being suspicious of them. If there's a crime committed nearby, it's often the homeless that are suspected as having committed said crime. Sometimes all the homeless are trying to do is survive. Survive the hunger, survive the extreme heat, survive the freezing cold, survive being sleep deprived. Most of us take sleep for granite ...even if we sleep badly. But, to be safe, and to be above suspicion it's not uncommon for homeless to have to move constantly...often in the middle of the night, therefore are often sleep deprived. Even when there is a safe indoor space where they're permitted to sleep, those hours are restricted and they therefore have to be on the move, no matter how sleep deprived they may be.
But, you all who support Bridge and Beyond with your knitting, your crocheting, your looming, your collecting personal care items, your visits and comments to this blog.............you all are SuperWomen and SuperMen. You help elevate some of those sad words above that start with the letter S. You all help warm the homeless both physically and emotionally with your kind crafts and big hearts. PLEASE keep up the good work. **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.
Look at this pretty blue and pastel yellow lapghan our friend, Karen S crocheted. Isn't it pretty! Please click so you can see the texture created with the stitches she's chosen. The lapghan will work for a young child as an afghan, or as a lapghan for a lucky lady to snuggle under.
Yippee for more cotton washcloths. Always a hit regardless of where they get donated to. The shelters love them, as do the folks living in the elements. They're also used in welcome home packs provided by Homeless Families Foundation when a family makes the transition from shelter living to a permanent housing situation. Cotton cloths are used as personal washcloths, and dishcloths. Thank you Karen for your on going support of Bridge and Beyond and Ohio's Homeless. Please keep up the good work. **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.
I'm trying to identify where everyone is from, partially for fun. Take a look at the map. Also, believe it will aid me in cases where we have several people with the same name. Please look at the lists of bloggers and non bloggers and see if I have the state you hail from. If not, please leave a comment and let me know.
Additionally, we've had help from Scotland, England, Germany Puerto Rico, Canada, and France! They don't appear on the map, but their help is still greatly appreciated.
Where The People Who Donate Come From, is your state represented?
