Updates & Meeting This Thursday
October 6, 2009Posted in: 1 Comment
A lot going on at a rapid pace.
- Central, Ursula, Bedford and Oak Harbor schools are all working on clothing drives
- Karen Ahrens has started a “Project Happy Feet” collection
- St. Andrews Episcopal Church is doing a clothing drive until 10/18
- Ric White found the pancake mix and syrup we needed, donated by Schmuckers
- Todd got the donation station boxes to most of the fire stations
- The press is going out, some each week
- Volunteers are starting to register
- Yvette is getting a significant amount of the needed donations collected
- Norma has the structure set up for the collecting and sorting of the donations
- Amanda’s Toledo Streets is near publication. There is an open house next Wednesday, the 14th
- Tent City meeting is this Thursday, the 8th. 7 pm, Red Cross on Central
- Anything else you know of update here and on Facebook
Tent City Updates
October 1, 2009Posted in: 0 Comments
Clothing Donations
Clothing drives are taking place all over the city. Clothes are starting to come into the Lifebridge Center.
Tonight (10/1) from 4 – 6 is an orientation for the donation leadership team @ the Lifebridge Center, 3342 Monroe St. It is the old Banner Mattress building just east of Auburn.
Todd “I Drive Clothes” Gagne is getting the Donation Stations out to all the fire stations today. We are beginning the publicity campaign this week and you will be seeing things throughout the month.
Entertainment
Pat Lewandowski has the performers mostly scheduled.
Friday night will be the Mayoral Candidates Poverty Forum, Todd Gagne, Or Something Like That, East of Eden, and the Grey Devils
Saturday night will be The Council Candidates Poverty Forum, Candice Coleman, An Open Mic, AJ Szozda, and the Grey Devils.
Between sets we will again be blessed with poetry readings from some of regions most notable poets.
We hope all of you will be able to stop down for some very fine performances throughout the weekend.
Needed Items
First, a very high priority is…. coffee. LOTS of it! We need about 200 pounds.
The plan is to have an International Night on Friday, so word is getting out to all kinds of chefs/cooks to provide any international flavor. It is hard to gauge who is going to like what, but we are guestimating that each cuisine would serve 75 or so. We will get more updates here soon.
As for needs, we are about half way there for food donations. Still needed are bacon, donuts/danishes, potato salad, rolls, sausages, scrambled eggs and hash browns. We also would like to get a large supply of hand sanitizers, food service gloves and trash bags (strong).
We have not yet contracted for the Porta-Potties and large trash bin, so if you have hook ups there, let us know.
Those are the items that come to mind, so if you can donate or want to buy any of the above just let us know. Thank you!
Reminder
Our next Tent City meeting is next Thursday, the 8th @ 7 pm. Feel free to join us and meet some of the coolest people on the planet. Including the “cougar in warpaint”. (Inside joke, feel free to come and find out. lol)
Tent City Meeting This Thursday
September 23, 2009Posted in: 1 Comment
First, UT Friday Night
Quick announcement: This Friday, the 25th, The University of Toledo chapter of Habitat for Humanity is having their annual “Cardboard City”. They create these pretty amazing cardboard structures, (seriously, especially the engineering students.) Their mission is to bring awareness of the plight of the unhoused. Their event starts at 7 pm and runs all night. Hope some of you can come out and support some powerful giving spirits.
Tent City Meeting
Tomorrow night, (9/24) is the next Tent City planning meeting for those interested in helping plan one or more aspects of Tent City.
We hope you will join us! It is at 7pm @ the Red Cross Headquarters, 3400 West Central Avenue, just east of Secor. It is a very good group of people, nay, GREAT group of people.
Let’s Be “Jimmy-Heads”
September 15, 2009Posted in: 0 Comments
A movie came out earlier in the year called “The Soloist”. It is the true story of Julliard trained musician Nathaniel Ayers who lands on the streets of LA as a street musician because of schizophrenia. An LA Times reporter befriends him and tries to help Nathaniel become what the reporter thought was the “norm”. The message was clear: If you want to help someone, what about first accepting who they are and where they want to be.
The movie so reminded me of Jimmy. Though less frequently, Jimmy and I still hook up, still go to dinner, still take him to the store, or his personal favorite, still give him money, lol.
Anyway, late last year he told me he was pretty good at chess and really enjoyed it, so I got him a chess set. He was quite grateful, in fact beaming.
Turns out I guess he really is good at it. He told me came in second in a chess tournament at the library. To my knowledge he has only lied to me once, and that was about buying the dope at the library. But he had never lied about who he was or what he did. So I believe him here.
I write this to tell you that tomorrow, Wednesday 9/16 Jimmy has entered another chess tournament at the downtown Library. He said his sister paid the entry fee for him already. He made me promise I would come, but then I started thinking, how awesome would it be if we got a few more of us to go down and be “Jimmy-Heads”!
Jimmy’s fans.
Sheesh, would think there will be no other chess players with a fan club. lol. So if you got an hour or so, meet us at the library at 9 am tomorrow. Make a sign if you want, “Jimmy Rocks” or some such. Maybe we can even get Liz’s daughter Aubrey out of school for an hour to come down in her cheer leading outfit? You get the point, have fun with it. Hope to see you there!
Even if it is two or three of us, that would be awesome. This posting is more to let the people who have met Jimmy and were touched by him to know about this. If you are new to the game, you can get up to speed on this loving soul by reading THIS, or THIS, or THIS or THIS to start.
