Showing posts with label homeless. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeless. Show all posts

Monday, September 7, 2009

Orlando Interfaith effort brings students to aid of homeless

As a Chaplain, as an American, as a resident of the area, this story is a true blessing and shows what people can do when they come together for the greater good.

Interfaith effort brings students to aid of homeless

By Jeff Kunerth

Sentinel Staff Writer

10:18 p.m. EDT, September 6, 2009


Inside the front door of the Masjid Al-Haq mosque on Orlando's Central Boulevard were shoes, dozens and dozens of shoes, removed by the visitors inside. Running shoes, dress shoes, sandals, high heels, flip-flops, Skechers, Nikes and Adidas.

Who could tell which were Christian shoes and which were Muslim shoes and which were Jewish shoes?

In the back room of the mosque was another group of shoes, laid out in orderly rows on a silver tarp. Dress shoes, running shoes, flip-flops, high heels, sandals and children's shoes.

Who could tell which shoes would fit the feet of the homeless men, women and children waiting in line outside on Terry Street?

On Sunday morning, the categories by which people are divided -- homeless, homeowner, working, unemployed, Muslim, Jew, evangelical -- did not matter.

It didn't matter to the members of the Muslim Student Association, the Hillel UCF Jewish organization or the youth group from Northland, A Church Distributed, who participated in the interfaith event to help the homeless.

"It's a true testament against all the stereotypes. We all want to better ourselves and better other people's lives," said Nadine Abu-Jubara, 21, a Muslim graduate of the University of Central Florida.

And it didn't matter to the people in need standing in line outside the mosque for the food, toiletries, socks and shoes. It didn't matter to the woman in gold high-tops and the Baby Girl tank top, or the guy on the bike with a garbage bag for a seat, or tall, lean Tony Pearce, who was homeless himself not too long ago.

"I think it's beautiful. It's really beautiful that all these denominations can come together and do something," said Pearce, 57.
read more here
Interfaith effort brings students to aid of homeless

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Number of homeless students in Volusia County FL climbs

August 26, 2009

Number of homeless students in Volusia climbs

By LINDA TRIMBLE
Education writer

DELAND -- The number of homeless children attending Volusia County public schools has increased more than five-fold since 2003, with most of them enrolled in elementary schools, the School Board heard Tuesday night.

"Our numbers are high for Florida and high for a county this size," Pam Woods, the school district's homeless education liaison, told the School Board.

Volusia schools enrolled 1,990 homeless students last school year, compared to 350 in 2003, Woods reported. Volusia Schools has about 62,000 total students this year.

Under federal law, children are considered homeless when they lack "fixed, regular and adequate night-time residence."
read more here
Number of homeless students in Volusia climbs

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Marine wants to 'sell' his military leave to help homeless

Cpl. Matthew Purkey thought of others first, or he wouldn't have joined the Marines. Very few join any branch of the service thinking of themselves first. It's usually a case of caring about others, giving back, doing their part. What makes this story all the more telling about the type of people joining the military is what this man wanted to do instead of taking care of himself for Thanksgiving.

He wants to give back by taking care of homeless people.

No one would find any fault in him for wanting to spend Thanksgiving with his family or friends instead. While we walk by the homeless everyday, he thinks of them. While we decide they are not worth our time or find excuses to not care, he thinks of them.

Marine wants to 'sell' his military leave to help homeless

By Margo Rutlede Kissell, Staff Writer
5:47 PM Monday, August 24, 2009
Marine Cpl. Matthew Purkey wants to “sell” his 96 hours of military leave over Thanksgiving to raise $2,400 to benefit a homeless shelter.

The 27-year-old Waynesville native would like to spend those four days living among and helping the homeless in Wilmington, N.C., where he’s stationed at Camp Lejeune. Purkey is seeking $25 in donations per hour of leave to raise the money.

He came up with the idea to help Good Shepherd Center, a nonprofit that feeds the hungry and shelters the homeless, after hearing his Life Community Church minister gave a sermon asking the congregation if they’re doing enough to help those less fortunate.

“In the Marines, I’m taught to fight wars abroad,” said Purkey, whose 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit is expected to deploy in January, possibly to Afghanistan. “I realized wars need to be fought locally here, too.”
read more here
Marine wants to sell his military leave to help homeless

Friday, August 21, 2009

Tasered Homeless Man Catches on Fire

Tasered Homeless Man Catches on Fire
Ohio Police Say Officers Struggled with Man Inhaling from Aerosol Can

(AP) Police in Ohio say officers using a new Taser stun gun briefly set a homeless man on fire while trying to subdue him.

A police report in Lancaster (LANG'-kuh-stur), about 30 miles southeast of Columbus, says one officer had seen the man inhaling a chemical from an aerosol can Monday night. That officer and another then struggled with the suspect, and the Taser was used. A flame appeared on the man's chest, and officers patted it down.

Police Chief David Bailey says 31-year-old Daniel Wood was not seriously hurt.
read more here
Tasered Homeless Man Catches on Fire

Monday, August 10, 2009

Ex-homeless woman leaves $150,000 to Hebrew University

Ex-homeless woman leaves $150,000 to Hebrew University
Story Highlights
Woman died two years ago; estate's executor asks that she remain anonymous

Holocaust survivor lived on New York streets until accountant befriended her

University spokesman: "This was a special story and a special gift"



(CNN) -- A Jewish Holocaust survivor who later lived on the streets of New York City has left half of her $300,000 estate to Hebrew University, the school said Monday.

"It moved us very much," university spokesman Yefet Ozery said in a telephone interview from Jerusalem, where the school is based.

"Hebrew University has many, many donors and benefactors and supporters and many people remember us in their will, but I haven't come across such a person that lived actually as a poor woman who would give half of her bequest to Hebrew University," Ozery said.

The woman, who died two years ago in her 90s, has not been identified publicly at the request of her estate's executor, he said.

"He didn't want her name to be remembered as a homeless" person, Ozery said.

The woman, who had no known relatives, survived a concentration camp and was living on the streets of New York's Upper West Side several years ago when a Jewish accountant befriended her, Ozery said.
read more here
Ex-homeless woman leaves $150,000 to Hebrew University

Monday, July 27, 2009

Man who died saving girl was extremely ill young homeless man

Man who died saving girl was extremely ill

By BARBARA LaBOE, The Longview Daily News KELSO, Wash. (AP) - Allen Heck has been hailed a hero since running into the Cowlitz River last week to save a 9-year-old girl, losing his own life in the process. Unknown by most is that Heck was an extremely ill young homeless man with the simple goal of living to his 21st birthday.

The 20-year-old Longview man had drifted for about three years after diabetes barred him from the only job he ever wanted - serving in the Army. Directionless, he made some bad decisions, family and friends admit, and was living at the Community House shelter at the time of the drowning.

But despite frequent hospitalizations for diabetes and complications and the news he only had a few years to live, at best Heck kept trying to put his life back together, family and friends said. And his actions one week ago surprised no one who knew him.
read more here
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/51747952.html

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Ocoee Florida police say teens stabbed homeless man

Ocoee police say teens stabbed homeless man
Anika Myers Palm

Sentinel Staff Writer

12:10 PM EDT, July 22, 2009


Two teens allegedly stabbed a homeless man to death early Wednesday morning in Ocoee, sources said.

Police are questioning people this afternoon at the police station, according to the sources.

Ocoee Police have not provided any information.

Police have not released the names of the suspects or the victim.


Check back for updates

Monday, July 20, 2009

After decades apart, woman finds mom -- homeless in Orlando

After decades apart, woman finds mom -- homeless in Orlando
Jessica Wisnoski and Lani Burgos are reunited after Wisnoski spent $20,000 and decades searching for the mother she hadn't seen since she was a toddler.

Susan Jacobson

Sentinel Staff Writer

July 20, 2009


For nearly four decades, all Jessica Wisnoski had to remember her mother was a tattered photo of 2-year-old Wisnoski sitting in her mom's lap.

The yearning to know her mother never left Wisnoski, 38, who lives near Houston. She and her husband, Bryan, spent $20,000 and 17 years searching for Lani Burgos, 58, who left her only child with Burgos' father and stepmother while she tried to kick a drug habit.

On Saturday night, Wisnoski finally found her mom — homeless and living in Orlando.

After years of dashed hopes and false leads, the Wisnoskis, with the help of a private investigator, tracked Burgos to a Salvation Army shelter in Ocala and, from there, to Central Florida.

During the weekend, they drove to Orlando, where they planned to hand out fliers offering a reward for helping them find Burgos. On the way to the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida, they stumbled on police Officer Jonathan Adkins. He offered to drive them.
read more here
After decades apart, woman finds mom -- homeless in Orlando

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Law Center slams L.A. as America's 'meanest city' toward homeless"

Law Center slams L.A. as America's 'meanest city' toward homeless
2:58 PM July 14, 2009
Los Angeles tops the list of America's "10 Meanest Cities" in its treatment of the homeless as criminals, two legal advocacy agencies for the poor say in a report proposing alternatives for handling the down-and-out.
The survey of 273 cities by the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless based its rankings on the number of laws targeting the homeless by making it illegal to sleep, eat or sit in public spaces.
"Homelessness in America is a human-rights crisis right here at home," said Maria Foscarinis, executive director of the law center. click link for more



This reminds me of a speech I gave a while ago. It was to a group of "church people" but evidently they didn't understand that as "church people" they were compelled to care.

My argument is a simple one. Let's say that some of the more ridiculous rumors about homeless people are true. What is required of Christians then? Let's just say they deserve to be homeless because they don't want to work. Or that they are drug addicts and alcoholics. Or that they end up panhandling in the streets only to jump into expensive sports cars. Let's just think if all those rumors were true. As Christians, it's not up to us to judge. It's required of us to help.

The Good Samaritan Christ talked about came upon a man laying in the street. He had been beaten and robbed. Others walked by him but the Samaritan stopped, picked him up, took him to an inn and then paid for him to stay there so that he could recover, fed and provided with shelter. The Samaritan then told the inn keeper he would pay for any other expenses to take care of this stranger. He never asked why the man was laying in the streets or what he did for a living. He never asked to see what background this man had or where he came from. He never asked what he would get in return for his money and time. He just did it because he put himself in this stranger's state and acted the way he'd hope someone else would for him.

This is what Christ was talking about. He told us to take care of the poor and needy, not ask them how they got that way or stand in judgement over them. I often wonder if Calvin ever explained Christ Himself being homeless, depending on the charity of strangers to feed Him and give Him shelter? How would that jive with the attitude about being "chosen" ahead of time and nothing else we do matters because God chose us for blessings and others for cursing? This really does away with using any rumor as a way to avoid taking care of the homeless.

Now with that out of the way, the rumors, for the most part, are not true. Many of the homeless people we see on our streets have mental illness. Many of them using drugs and alcohol are suffering from addiction but others are self-medicating to mask the illness they carry and need medication for. A third of the homeless on our streets every night are veterans. We have homeless people because they lost their jobs. We have homeless families. Does any of this sink into what Christ was talking about as being "just the way it is because they were not blessed" or even coming close to imagining they deserve to be that way? Hell no!

Some people don't want to give homeless "beggars" a dime because they will use it to buy alcohol or drugs. How do we know for sure? How do we know they are not planning on getting something to eat for a friend just too sick to leave the box they sleep in? We don't know anything about them and we are not even required to ask. We are required to help. If you don't want homeless people living in your town or city, then give them a place to live. If you don't want them asking you for money so they can eat, then feed them. If you don't want them walking near you in smelly clothes then give them others to wear. Why is any of this so hard for us to understand?

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Holy Ground Homeless Shelter saved because people cared

Of all the posts I put up to share, I take great joy in posting this kind of story to warm your heart, renew your belief if the human spirit and the compassion people can find within their own hearts. These people stepping up to help this wonderful woman are remarkable. They were not rich. Far from it. One donated $5.00 and another sold her things at a yard sale to find the extra money to give. Even in these hard times, people think of others first. Other people will look at the suffering that goes on in this world and ask, "Where is God" because so many suffer. They do not understand that God sends the answer to prayers when we hear His call and fulfill the need. How can anyone look at such acts of compassion and still wonder?


Outpouring of donations saves Holy Ground from eviction
By Camille C. Spencer, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Tuesday, June 9, 2009


HUDSON — An unemployed woman gave $5. Another woman sold her belongings at a yard sale and donated the $200 profit. Churches pitched in, too.

As word spread that Holy Ground Homeless Shelter was facing eviction, scores of people dropped by the county's only all-inclusive homeless shelter to give whatever they could to keep the doors open.

By Monday, their generosity saved the day.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1008339.ece

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Police: Good Samaritan beheaded in Florida

Police: Good Samaritan beheaded in Florida

By Associated Press FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) - Authorities in south Florida say a homeless man beheaded a good Samaritan who had given him a place to stay.

Lee County Sheriff's deputies went to 70-year-old Charles Rogers' apartment Thursday and found his body still in his wheelchair. His head had been placed near the front door.
go here for more
http://www.komonews.com/news/national/46486397.html

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Coalition for the Homeless to build new men's center with more services

Coalition for the Homeless to build new men's center with more services
Kate Santich Sentinel Staff Writer
8:43 PM EDT, May 11, 2009
ORLANDO - The Coalition for the Homeless announced Monday that it will build a new two-story residential center next to its old shelter in Orlando's Parramore neighborhood, providing up to 250 men with the counseling and training they need to steer them toward self-sufficiency.

Using federal funds from Community Development Block Grant programs, Orange County is funneling $5 million into the project and the city of Orlando will devote $1.6 million, potentially ending a long and sometimes-bitter fight over how to help single homeless men in the area.

"Today is a historic day," said the coalition's president and chief executive officer, Brent Trotter. "This new facility will allow us to provide more than a meal and a place to sleep for the night. … No longer will there be this waking [them] up in the early morning and sending them off to the streets for the day."

Over the past 22 years, the Coalition for the Homeless of Central Florida has grown from a church-outreach program to the largest provider of homeless services in the Orlando region, serving 650 men, women and children on an average night.
go here for more
Coalition for the Homeless to build new men's center with more services

Monday, February 2, 2009

Homeless man left to die on sidewalk in DC

No it wasn't at night when no one would have seen him. It wasn't in a part of the city where no one would see him. No, not at all. It was in front of a grocery store, on the sidewalk of a busy street in broad daylight with plenty of people just walking by. Their excuse was that they see this all the time. Amazing!

Passers-by ignore dying man 2:02
Passers-by ignore dying man 2:02
A man dies after being beaten on a D.C. street and then ignored by passers-by. WJLA reports.

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Shrine Built for NY Starbucks Homeless Man


Fleming may not have had a family to go home to but he sure found one at Starbucks. Once you read what they had to say when Fleming died, you'll know what I mean.

A Shrine for a Friend Who Made a Starbucks a Village
By PETER APPLEBOME
Nyack’s coffee drinkers are still coming to grips with the death of a compulsively affable, flirtatious, apparently homeless man who held court at a local Starbucks.
One by one, people made their own small contributions to the purple velvet shrine for Fleming Logan. Or was it Fleming Taylor? Everyone just called him Fleming, so we will, too.

There were red roses and modest bouquets, letters, cards and trinkets all left on the purple padded chair at the Starbucks on Main Street where he sat, chatted and took in the world every day for more than a year.

Some of the messages had the feel of letters to a child away at camp or a friend off on some long trip.

“Dear Fleming,” began one. “We all love you and miss you. It’s not the same without you here. You are a gem of a person. The joy you brought to our lives is incredible.”

Others were full of regret for words not spoken or things not done.

“Dear Fleming,” began another one. “I wish you were here now because I never got to tell you that I enjoyed our conversation and that you had a warm, funny personality. I liked when you’d see me coming down the street and say, ‘There she is,’ that hilarious voice like I was some famous movie star. I wish I had taken the opportunity to buy you that coat you said you needed and to be a lot kinder.” It was signed, “Love in Jesus, Stephanie.”

They found Fleming’s body in a stairwell just up the street from the Starbucks at 10:45 a.m. on Nov. 26. The Rockland County Medical Examiner’s office determined that he died of a cerebral hemorrhage. He was 62. A week later, Nyack’s coffee drinkers are still coming to grips with the apparently homeless man who, it seemed, had found a home, at least from the time Starbucks opened at 6 each morning until it closed at 10 p.m.

click link for more

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Chicken soup for a complex problem, homelessness

Maybe you're like I was at a time in my life when I thought the homeless people received enough help so they didn't need me. I was actually afraid of them when I was walking around. My excuse, well I was just a teenager at the time. When I grew up, my attitude did too.

I started to see them as people that once had families and friends, jobs, places to live and bank accounts. After all, my father did. He was a Korean War veteran and 100% disabled. He was also an alcoholic. My father never ended up homeless but spent about a year in a project living in a tiny apartment. Because of him, I understood how families could turn their backs on one of their own. Having a parent come home drunk with half the neighborhood talking about him was not something to be proud of. There were constant fist fights and shouting matches. He stopped drinking when I was 13 and joined AA. My parents separation ended and he moved back home.

His alcoholism and recovery changed my mind about homeless people. I understood that my father could have been one of them. Then as I grew older, they captured my heart.

It was not until my husband's PTSD got so bad that I was considering sending him to the homeless shelter in Boston that my eyes were fully opened. Homeless veterans also walk the streets with all the others. Imagine being willing to lay down your life for the sake of the other people in the country only to be left abandoned by them, homeless and walking the streets for the rest of you life. Fighting for a bed to sleep in or someplace out of the snow, rain and freezing temperatures. Wondering when you'll eat next or when you have taken your last chance. While all homeless people mattered to me, the veterans being homeless broke my heart. Considering I almost had two of them in my own life, it isn't hard to understand why that is.

Some use drugs and alcohol to the point where their lives fall apart but others see hard times come into their lives and they cannot cope with them. There are as many reasons for homeless people as there are homeless people. Some never had a close family to take care of them. Some have mental illness and there are no jobs for them even if they could work.

What really go to me is that there is the most famous homeless person in the history of mankind. His name is Jesus. Remember He didn't really have a home to go to at the end of working a long day spreading the word of God. He didn't have a stock of food to eat whenever He wanted to or clothes in suitcases. He had to rely on the kindness of strangers to take care of His needs. His Disciples gave up their homes, families and livelihoods to follow Him. They were taken care of by the people in the towns they traveled to. No one asked them why they didn't have a place to live. No one asked them why they couldn't find real jobs to take care of their own needs. No one judged them. They just took care of them.

Think about it the next time you find nothing wrong with homeless people walking our streets with not enough people to take care of them, feed them, shelter them and clothe them.

Senior Chaplain Kathie "Costos" DiCesare
International Fellowship of Chaplains
Namguardianangel@aol.com
http://www.namguardianangel.org/
http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/
www.youtube.com/NamGuardianAngel
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Chicken soup for a complex problem

By Cristina Silva and Austin Bogues, Times Staff Writers
In print: Sunday, November 30, 2008

Laura Lanciotti was hooked on cocaine and liquor, unemployed and living under a highway overpass in downtown St. Petersburg when advocates for the homeless told her about Pinellas Hope.

She moved into the outdoor tent shelter in unincorporated Pinellas County in October, quit the booze and drugs and got a job as a security guard at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.

Pinellas Hope "helped me put my life back together," said Lanciotti, 55.

Once regarded as an experimental, quick fix to the area's growing homeless problem, Pinellas Hope has quickly become Pinellas County's leading social service provider since the shelter opened 12 months ago.
click link above for more

Sunday, November 16, 2008

CNN Faces of Faith: Unlikely duo, helping homeless

Unlikely duo reach out to homeless
Unlikely help for homeless 3:34
CNN's T.J. Holmes reports on an unlikely duo that is raising money and awareness for the nation's homeless.


This is their site
http://www.samekindofdifferentasme.com/about.aspx
About Same Kind of Different As Me



DENVER MOORE'S BIOGRAPHY


Denver was born in rural Louisiana in January 1937, and after several tragic events went to live on a plantation in Red River Parish with his Uncle James and Aunt Ethel, who were share croppers.

Sometime around 1960, he hopped a freight train and began a life as a homeless drifter until 1966 when a judge awarded him a 10 year contract for hard labor at the Louisiana State School of Fools, aka, Angola Prison!

According to Denver, he went in a man and left a man and received a standing ovation from prisoners in the yard as he walked out of there in 1976. For the next 22 years he was homeless on the streets of Fort Worth, Texas. However, there were a few times after a brush with the law, he'd ride the rails visiting cities and hobo jungles across America, sampling regional cuisine like Vienna sausage with fellow passengers.

In 1998, "He never met Miss Debbie," Miss Debbie met him and his life was changed forever.

Today, he is an artist, public speaker, and volunteer for homeless causes. In 2006, as evidence of the complete turn around of his life, the citizens of Fort Worth honored him as "Philanthropist of the Year" for his work with homeless people at the Union Gospel Mission.
click link for more
CNN video is at the bottom of this blog under Faces of Faith

Thursday, November 13, 2008

New solutions sought as homeless ranks grow

New solutions sought as homeless ranks grow
Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Latrina Medlock knows how a few bad decisions can lead to homelessness.

As she walks the streets of the city pregnant and uncertain of the future, she says she knows that handling money and opportunities a bit differently in her life would have saved her from dire straits.

"Bad decision-making caused me to get in the situation I am now," said Medlock, who is one of a growing number of pregnant women and families left homeless in Metro Detroit as the economy shrivels. Being "homeless is not pleasant," she says. "I just make it day by day."

As state officials, along with more than 5,000 social workers, charities and the poor gather at Cobo Center for a major conference on poverty Thursday, a national and worldwide recession threatens to burst the seams of the social safety net in Michigan, where the economy soured earlier in the decade. The recipients and providers of social services, who normally grapple with solutions for poverty in good times, will gather to hammer out a new, concerted approach to fighting rising levels of poverty as more workers and their families are exposed to dire circumstances.
go here for more
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081113/METRO/811130414
Linked from RawStory

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

11 year old Brenden Foster sees his dying wish come true

This is the third post on this little angel. He's only been here for 11 years and has already managed to change this nation and how we look at homeless people. To think this wonderful child could have asked for anything for himself and it would have been given, he asked that we take care of the homeless and feed them. There are angels among us!

I was in the site for KOMO looking for an update and discovered this.

Go to the Problem Solvers donation page and select "Brenden Foster Food Drive" from the donation options list.



Dying boy inspires goodwill in people near and far
Watch the story
By KOMO Staff
Watch the story
BOTHELL, Wash. -- An 11-year-old boy's dying wish to feed the homeless has taken on a life of its own, sparking a movement to help the hungry nationwide. Doctors gave Brenden Foster two weeks to live. His time was up last Wednesday. "I should be gone in a week or so," he said last Friday. On Monday, groggy and medicated, Brenden was having a rough day. "Tired," he said, visibly weak. "(You) need some more medicine," said his mother, Wendy Foster, stroking his head. Leukemia halted the young life of Brenden, who once dreamed of becoming a marine photographer. Brenden has relapsed for the last time.

There is no chemo, no more transfusions; just comfort medications. "I'm hoping I'm awake when he decides to pass because I want to make sure I'm holding him," Wendy later said. Brenden survived his leukemia long enough to witness his dying wish come true. Last Friday Brenden shared his last wish to feed the homeless.


On Monday, Brenden could barely keep his eyes open as he watched a video of volunteers feeding Seattle's homeless on his behalf.

Over the weekend, his wish went national on CNN. And KOMO News received phone calls from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Clearly in pain, Brenden still managed to smile as he listened to stories about the phone calls and e-mails his story had inspired. His story touched many people from all walks of life, from families fighting cancer to men in the military.

"I think it's great, all over the country..." Brenden said.

"He made my dream come true. In my lifetime, I wanted to change the world and my son did that," said Wendy. "The world is such a beautiful place and (that became) evident the last 72 hours, and Brenden did that."

Brenden has one more wish for the afterlife: become an angel who accomplishes even more in heaven than he did on Earth.

go here for more

http://www.komonews.com/news/problemsolvers/34241094.html

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Mary Schmich: A hip bakery where the bakers are homeless

Mary Schmich: A hip bakery where the bakers are homeless
Mary Schmich
October 31, 2008
Meet the cast of characters of the Sweet Miss Givings Bakery.

•Stan Sloan, 45, idea mastermind, a tanned Episcopal priest who wears a black leather jacket and grooves on Madonna.

•Stephen Smith, 28, chief operating officer, Harvard grad who just moved back to town with a master's degree from the London School of Economics.

•Kristi Gorsuch, 30ish, head baker, who earned her pastry degree at a school of the Cordon Bleu.

And the bakery's interns, among them:

•Mary Pelts, 44, 5th-grade graduate whose birth certificate, she says, carries the words "female pelvis" where a name should have gone, who was diagnosed with HIV in 2001 and never had a job except street hustling until she came to Sweet Miss Givings.

•Stanley Long Bey, 44, who was diagnosed with HIV the year he finished high school, who spent half his adult life in prison, and who, when he finally got out, had nowhere to sleep but parks and sidewalks.

Since last week when Mayor Daley snipped the ribbon, Reverend Stan, Stephen, Kristi, Mary, Stanley and a dozen others have come to work at this little brick factory off Division Street near the Chicago River.
click link for more of this great story!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

3 More Charged In Homeless Milwaukee Man's Killing





3 More Charged In Homeless Milwaukee Man's Killing
Man Found On Trail

UPDATED: 10:25 pm CDT October 29, 2008
MILWAUKEE -- Three more people, two from Milwaukee and one from Okauchee, are facing murder charges in the killing of a homeless man on a trail near the Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Milwaukee.

According to criminal complaints, the killing happened early last Thursday after a group of people went to the tent where Kelly Graf, 29, was sleeping to confront him about naked pictures of a girl that he had been showing on his cell phone.

The complaint quotes witnesses as saying they took Graf from the tent, beat him and took him to the trail where Matthew McAfee, 26, shot him in the head and cut his throat.


go here for more