Today we were thankful to join our good friend Jim and Paul from Care Alliance Health Center on homeless outreach in downtown Cleveland!
What a humbling & rewarding trip as always. Today we served hot chicken noodle soup & gave out a variety of food & warming items to those in need.
Thanks to the wonderful generosity of many, we were able to share:
35+ Military sleeping bags
12 Military sleeping mats
120 Hand warmers
3 Tents
Men’s coats, layers, boots, scarves, socks & earmuffs
Women’s coats and layers
Also, our journey today included:
– Sharing an extreme cold weather sleeping bag with Jim, a vet, who was sleeping on a concrete staircase outside
– Donating an extreme cold weather sleeping bag plus a number of hand warmers to Tony, who was living in a tent at a campsite
– Sharing hand warmers with Jonathan at Herman’s House of Hospitality
– Leaving hand warmers for Greg and Federico at their tents
– Sitting down with Chris in his tent and sharing a coup of chicken noodle soup, and donating blankets, a sleeping bag, and many other items for him & his tent mates
– Sharing an extreme cold weather sleeping bag with Ken and soup with Richard who were living outside in tents near some railroad tracks
– Knowing how awesome it is that many of the sleeping bags and other winter warming item donations we shared today will also be used by the homeless outreach team at St. Ignatius who will go out this and on other Sundays!
A great way to end 2017! Today we’re reminded again just how fortunate we all are, and how much we receive in return when we give to others.
