Turning a year older stopped being fun at 21. But my birthday this winter was one of my all-time favorites, and not because I’m closer to caving in to a botox temptation. It’s because of the full-spectrum events that day.
Mike and I woke up that morning on the floor of a church, where we’d spent the night as volunteers for homeless shelter overflows. It wasn’t that cold out and only ten men showed up. Each of them had been here before and they knew what to do. Since they’d already showered and eaten at the shelter, they just signed in, took their blankets and found a place inside the church to sleep for the night. Some slept on the pews and some slept on the floor. But, since they came around 8 p.m., (the homeless shelter staff drove them here) they spent a few hours in the back watching TV and eating snacks. All of us watched Mr. T from “The A Team” and talked a little. One guy was a chess whiz and was telling me chess strategies.
I realized once again that any negative stereotypes I had about the homeless were wrong. They didn’t try to sneak out of the door or break the rules. They just wanted a place to sleep. A few of them asked us to wake them around 5 a.m. so they could collect their McDonald’s breakfast coupon and bus token early and catch the bus to work.
Mike and I slept in the entrance of the church. Mike took the 10 – 2 shift while I slept (about 20 minutes, I think) and I took the 2 – 6 shift. We brought a flashlight so the awake one of us could read, but mostly it was a struggle to just stay awake and stay out of the junk food snacks that the church provided.
And then that evening … I was asked to interview Cal Ripken, Jr., as part of my new job at Washington Life Magazine. The event was at the Canadian Embassy. So, 12 hour after waking up on a church floor and wishing our ten homeless men a productive and happy day, I was surrounded by glamour, gourmet appetizers and an international role model.
Ripken was being honored by the non-profit Super Leaders for his work with at-risk children. Looking back on it, I should have asked the homeless men what they thought of him. I wonder if they would have known him more for his baseball records or for his extensive work with underserved kids.
