As you all know, a few weeks ago I vented about my frustration in service opportunities out here in the Burbs. And by service, I mean actually DOING something- not just buying a tube of toothpaste to put in a box in the foyer.
My sister Stephanie commented that I could make homeless kits to hand out. I thought that was brilliant! I'm working with a couple of friends and we're going to put together a night to put some kits together after the holidays.
I also have a couple of other ideas- I'll post more about those as they happen.
But, a strange series of events (including Stephanie's comment) led to an incredible thing happening.
I was talking to a friend of mine from church. This friend used to organize a used clothes/toys/household good drive every year with the scouts and our congregation. Donated items were given to some pretty impoverished people living in the Hispanic community close to downtown. She was a leader with the scouts, and they did all the work. After she stopped working with the scouts, the drive also stopped.
I happened to be talking to her and she said, "I miss doing the drive." Then, a few days later I was cleaning out some toys to make room for Santa. On top of all this, another friend from church was organizing this huge project to help kids at a super, super poor elementary school. She made an ambitious goal to buy every kid (over 750!) a new book for Christmas. This is a person who, herself, does not have a lot of money or resources. She simply saw a need and decided to try and fill it. Her work was really inspiring.
As all of this came to a head, it clicked: I should organize the drive. Why wait for the church to do it? Why did I need the approval of the Bishop (pastor) or anybody else? I could just do it.
So, I talked to my friend Cindy who had organized it before. She was skeptical. Her husband was even more skeptical. We only had a little over a week to get it organized- how would we get the word out? How would we get people to help? How on earth would we put this together and pull it off?
I had absolutely no idea. But I didn't care. I just got to work.
I sent out e-mails, posted on Facebook, and made a zillion phone calls.
And slowly, small miracles started to happen. Somebody called and said they had a twin sized bed to donate. She asked if we had room. I texted Cindy and said, "I don't know how we will get this all down to Denver, but I trust the Lord will provide." Sure enough, just 3 hours later, a woman who I was e-mailing (who I never met before) said she had a trailer. Problem solved!
I asked for families to join us to take things down to the building we needed to get to. A lot of people said they could come- all of them super excited for an opportunity to get their kids to do service (which tells me people WANT to DO service, they just don't know how or where or what). We needed people to help us carry the items down and also to sort and set up the items for when the people came to pick up the items and families from church stepped up to the place.
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| Part of the fun of the donations was the kids got to play with them a little bit. They pulled out a big box of Transformers and played with them. Ben overheard them while he was making breakfast and said, "I have been listening to them play with the Transformers. Girls play with them very differently than boys." I said, "Is there a mom, dad, and baby involved?" "Yes. And no fighting." Yes, boys and girls are different. |
The donations started to pour in. (Side note: Yes, I realize this is another donation drive- like every other donation drive we do. Perhaps I am a hypocrite. However, this was slightly different: I got to talk to the girls about giving to the poor, and they went through their own toys and clothes and picked out things they could give. It was very sweet, and I hope it taught them a lesson. Plus, I selfishly wanted to organize it because I knew the girls could help me to collect the items. Sure enough, they had jobs of carrying the donations to the garage, answering the door when people brought items, and they were awesome in helping to set things up once we dropped it off. So, it wasn't quite the same)
Somebody came over and saw our donations and said, "normally when we did this in the past we filled up an entire garage." My garage wasn't nearly filled up. But, I figured whatever we got was better than nothing.
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| Our collected items in the garage |
Tonight we met at my house. About 8 families showed up. All of them came with pretty full cars, but thanks to the trailer we were able to load everything up (no twin bed ever showed up, BTW).
We were about 10 minutes behind everybody else because we had to meet to pick up one last donation. By the time we got there, everything was in full swing.
The Bishop of the Spanish Ward had set out a couple of tables in the foyer. He quickly realized the foyer wouldn't work and moved us into the cultural hall.
I walked in and almost started crying. How in the world did we collect this much stuff????? At first I didn't think it was all ours- but it was! I don't know if we all drove clown cars that fit in way more then they should or what, but check this out:
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| The girls said their favorite part was folding blankets. |
Cindy came up to me and said, "Just so you know- this is as much as we ever collected in the past." Her husband said, "I didn't think this would come together, but it did."
My faith in our community is beginning to be restored. It isn't there yet, but it's coming. Tonight was a really special night. Truly- my heart was touched. We were able to make a difference. My children will remember helping the poor- their hearts were touched. They felt it- and so did I.
I have known this since forever, but I have forgotten: Service is a pretty great cure for a frustrated/angry/bitter heart.
Life is good. Really, really good.
