Day 149: Distributed Umbrellas To The Homeless

It was just another rainy day in Spokane and when it rained, it poured. I was out and about doing some errands and I realized that I didn't have an umbrella. I would just put on my rain jacket and sprint to my car. Then, I began wondering what people did when they didn't have a shelter to run to. Knowing that I was about to head to my internship and that I would have to walk about a block from where I parked, I ran to the store and bought an umbrella. However, while I was there, I picked up two more. A good amount of people that I walk past when going to my internship are people that are either homeless or need some help. I told myself that if someone really looked like they needed it, the umbrella was theirs.

Well, the rain stopped by the time I reached the office building and I was left with two umbrellas. But like the good Northwest, the rain started again when I was leaving. Again, it started to pour as it had just hours before. On my way out of town, I saw a man on the side on the sidewalk, standing in the rain, holding a sign that read, "Anything helps. God bless you." Luckily, he was on my side of the street, so I rolled down the window and asked if an umbrella would help. The man chuckled a bit and answered as he looked to the sky, "Yes, I think this will work well right now. Thank you so much." As I began to drive away, I heard him give a little chuckle again and it made me feel good knowing I was able to put a smile on someone's face, especially on such a gloomy day.

God bless,

Kailee

Day 75: Donated to Hope House

This quarter I took a course called Community, Communication and Citizenship. In the course we were asked to complete 20 hours of service learning at several different local organizations. They included Boys and Girls Club, West Central Community Center, Hope House, Women's Hearth and Cheney Assisted Living. The point behind the service learning is pretty self-explantory, meaning that we would learn by being of service to the organizations. At the end of the quarter, each group of students was asked to make a video. You can see my and Rebekah's video on West Central Community Center by clicking here. This last week, each group presented their videos for the class to see. All of the videos were incredible, but there was one in particular that stuck out to me.

Women's Hearth is place where women can take refuge throughout the day. Then the women usually trek over to Hope House for shelter from the cold evenings. Each women receives food, a warm shower, clean and dry clothes, a warm bed, hygiene items and resource information. In the group's video for the two organizations, one of the employees expressed their need for hygiene products and food, especially during the spring and summer months. She mentioned that they receive most of their donations during the winter months (which is appreciated), but they need donations now too.

Acquiring this information and knowing I would be downtown this morning, I dropped off several cans of food and a few things of deodorant. It was not a lot, but that will help make a dent in providing supplies to over 1,800 homeless women in Spokane. If you would like to donate to either location, I would suggest calling ahead because there is not always someone there to accept donations. Here is the Hope House website. For your information, they are directly affiliated with Volunteers of America. 

God bless,

Kailee