For Advent I have been focusing mostly on topics that should unite us.
The Simi Valley Samaritan Center helps homeless and near homeless people with a variety of services. I am interested in helping by issuing my readers a challenge:
For every person that posts something they will donate to a local provider of services for homeless people by the end of the year I will bring needed supplies to the Samaritan Center.
Post a comment with what you are going to do to help. The Samaritan Center always can use toiletries and socks.
Where we end up in life is a mixture of choices and luck. When I sometimes become proud of the choices I have made I try to remember all the good fortune I have been blessed with in life. I know I can do a better job knowing that the difference between myself and the people that need services from places like the Samaritan Center often are factors we don't have control over.
I don't want to leave an impression that I have made any major contributions to helping local homeless people. My contributions are minimal, especially compared to the many volunteers that have given so much to help out. While I am at it thanks to Kari Lev and her team for doing an awesome job with the canned food drive this year at Royal High School.
Check out their new website design:
http://www.thesamaritancenterofsimivalley.org/
Look at what my readers did last year to inspire me.
I created a fanpage on Facebook to honor their work. When it grows to a respectable size I will give control over to the center to get their message out. Let's make helping the homeless more popular than any local politician. Please become a fan:
Samaritan Center!! You asked what we're doing - my crew and I are serving dinner! Tomorrow (Sunday June 13) it's BBQ port loin, dirty rice, chopped salad, corn, dessert and drinks. An extra hand to serve is always welcome and we'd love to have you!
We've got another BBQ set to go on Father's Day and another dinner on June 30th at the Samaritan Center. Feel free to join us for dinner, help serve or just stop by to drop off a blanket, toilet paper or other needed item!
Hey Brian, I dont know if you are part of board of directors or the founders of the Samaritan Center, but today was the first day there I was donating a big bag of clothes and wanted also to get some clothes for my kids for school since it's winter now, my husband is going to have knee surgery soon and we can't really afford too many clothes for the kids, anyway, Betty hughes(executive director) told me to get there at 12:00 pm, (but they were at lunch when I got there, waited around and called aroud 1:30 she answer i told here I had stopped by earlier as she had asked me, she said very sharply "well we are here now"(not a courteous apology or nothing)kind of in an arrogant way in my opinion! to make the story short, she did not greed or nothing, I needed an extra blanket, and ask for it, but the lady helping had giving me 3 fleece little kid blankets( I didn't ask for those, they gave me those because they had extras) then the lady told betty that i wanted to have a blanket if it was ok?, she also told her that she gave me some blankets, and betty ask how many blanket she gave me, I was starting to say she gave me 3 but I dont need those as much as the blanket, she did not let me finish, she told me in an rude manner-- I was not talking to you I was talking to xxxx, I dont really think that was necesary and just plain rude!Betty did not ask me if I needed anything else or even offer any services, she clearly wanted me out of there! I felt humiliated, I should have told her to shove the stuff up to where it fitted! I'm not going back there anymore, they should have someone who really cares and not someone that likes to diminish people, or make them feel like the owe her, or may be her problem is that i was hispanic but i am an american citizen by law, anyway I would like Grace Hughes to know of what happend, if you have any suggestions please let me know thank you.
This isn't the first time I heard of problems with this group. Some of these old ladies just want to get out of the house and aren't really interested is serving the community.
They think The Samaritan Center is a social group designed for them with long lunches and a ego boosts for helping people who are beneath them.
Don't take it personally. They treat everybody poorly.