This is the time of year when the weather starts getting cold (and hopefully wet soon too!). I can’t help but think about the people living in the streets. 2020 has been a catastrophic year on so many levels, and for many people 2021 may be even worse because eviction protections will be expiring. Lots of people haven’t been able to pay their rent but they’ve been allowed to stay in their homes. Others have managed to pay a portion of their rents but they will be expected to make it up, with no foreseeable means to do so. The homeless issues in our streets are bad now, but they could become exponentially worse in 2021.
Those thoughts were in the back of my mind when I recently made a donation to Wednesday’s Gift https://www.wednesdaysgift.org/. Here is their mission statement, taken from their website:
“Wednesday’s Gift is an all-volunteer-run group. Our Mission is to provide the base necessities of life to Marin County residents on a one-time bases, without delay. Wednesday’s Gift is a registered 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization.
In order to fulfill our mission, we rely on the generosity of individuals and businesses for support.”
A few years back I was helping a woman get off the streets and into a program that provided room and board, which would allow her to attend junior college. It was really quite perfect but she needed a computer. Wednesday’s Gift fulfilled their mission by not only getting her a computer but buying her new clothes as well! I was blown away by their generosity.
When I got the fundraising email from Wednesday’s Gift I gave right away. They feed scores of hungry people every year on Thanksgiving and I was glad to be able to contribute towards this year’s effort. I’m not sure how they are going to pull it all together with the pandemic, but I was more than happy to make a donation towards their good works.
Going through my email files I found some old correspondence with Wednesday’s Gift. Back when I was active in helping the homeless, I did a bike drive for team members of the Downtown Streets Team. Transportation is vital to getting a person’s life going. At one point I turned to Wednesday’s Gift and they were able to get a few bikes together which the team members used as transportation. One team member in particular had a job at Home Depot, got off work at 11pm and had no way back to Central San Rafael. Of course they came through for him!
There are lots of great organizations that help the homeless. I recently donated a portion of sale proceeds to the Tiny Pine Foundation which helps fire victims. I’ve also been able to donate a lot of furniture and household goods to them from homes that I’ve sold in the past year. That’s how I got involved with the Tiny Pine Foundation and I am glad to be able to support their good works.
If you’ve got a favorite organization, whether it be helping the homeless, vets or even pets, with the holidays upon us now is the perfect time to think about contributing if you can. Here’s to being grateful for what we have, to sharing and caring for others. If you’d like to make a donation to Wednesday’s Gift, you can be sure it will be going to helping the people who need it most.