"Attitude is gratitude" was the theme of Last Night's Soup Run when one of our guests on 33rd Street told us how he tries to stay positive and how appreciative he was for the food we provided. We served 110 delicious meals of turkey, mashed potatoes, peas and carrots to the group that awaited us. Our caravan of five cars and 20 volunteers distributed hundreds of clothing items including new jackets, fleece-lined flannel shirts, sweaters, socks, t-shirts, pants and toiletries. As we parked our cars, some of our guests helped us unload them and others worked with us to distribute food and clothing.
Imagine our delight when Joan showed us the coat she was wearing which was one we had given her last month. She was proud and happy to be wearing a warm coat and thanked us again for giving it to her.
We talked with Alberto, a former building Super, who lost his job, depleted his savings, has no family in New York, and has been living on the streets for five months. He met another homeless person one night who shared food with him and took him to a location where others live outside and in tents. Alberto is thankful that he has met good people on the streets who look out for one another. He also told us that "I pray to God every night to keep me safe until morning but I don't think he's listening to me." We suggested to him that God is listening because he is keeping him safe. Alberto, and all of our guests, need to be remembered in our prayers.
One of our teenage volunteers gave a guest the gloves he was wearing and plans to return next month to give away all of his sneakers that he no longer wears. And we never know what to expect on the streets of New York...what requests will we receive and what stories will we hear. Last night one man asked us for teeth!
Thank you to Angelika Kypar-Krischke, sponsor of this month's soup run, the many volunteers who serve and who organize the clothing and toiletries, and to the entire Holy Trinity community for being so supportive. We were able to purchase many clothing articles this month with the generous donation from one of our volunteers, Christian Glaser. Christian ran in the NYC Marathon earlier this month, established a Go Fund Me account and donated the money to the Philoptochos for use with the Soup Run. Thank you also to Alexandra Baudouin who provided a number of new coats, jackets and flannels. This month we also wish to give a very big thank you to George Kalyvas who completed his Eagle Scout project of creating a new storage solution for the Soup Run items. George installed rolling shelves, color-coded storage bins and a system that is efficient and well-organized. God bless you, George, God bless all of you!
The annual Philoptochos "Hats & Gloves for the Homeless" sale will be held on Sunday, December 17 after Liturgy. We will be selling $5 gift sets of scarves, hats and gloves which are knit by the Knitting for Charity group. The sets will be distributed with a Christmas card to our guests on December 21. Please support this important outreach and join us next month. #lastnightssouprun
