BUT THEYRE NEW: I have shared this story before but it bears repeating. On Thanksgiving and Christmas mornings I make the drive to downtown Memphis to help feed the homeless. Westys, a local bar and restaurant, feeds the homeless for free those days out of their own pocket, hundreds show up to get a great hot meal. I got the idea to collect socks for the homeless from the local Republican Womens club who had done it for needy veterans. A halfway house donates old clothes too but our sock idea was new. During our first sock drive friends and clients donated 1100 pairs of socks. On a cold Thanksgiving morning after I had cooked twenty gallons of corn, we began spreading out of our items and helping the halfway house give out the used clothes. We were opening up the new packages of bright white socks and balling each pair up to be giving away as eager men and women were picking them up. Some people looked homeless, many did not. Some looked poor, some looked desperate. A man walked up after leaving his shopping cart just a few feet packed with all of his possessions. He was white but his hands and face were brown with dirt and his clothes were tattered. He looked at the old clothes carefully, not grabbing things like so many others. He then saw our pile of white socks on the table and walked towards me. He reached out towards them but then stopped and looked at me. Are these free? He asked. I smiled and said of course. He hesitated and looked me in the eye and said, But they are new. I felt the wave of emotion over me and a lump in my throat appeared instantly. I quickly grabbed four or five pair and handed them to him. He placed them in various pockets of his worn out coat and patched up pants. If dawned on me that he had been given old clothes before and Im sure he was grateful for them, but it had probably been a long time since he had something new from the shelves of Wal Mart. I was overwhelmed. After a few seconds I could breath again, I stuck out my hand and told the man Happy Thanksgiving. He seemed surprised but shook my hand anyway. I saw the emotion in his eyes when he said, All I can say is thank you. People often ask me what its like to feed the homeless and pass out socks and clothes a couple of days a year. My response is simple, it is one of the best things Ive ever done in my selfish over indulgent life. It fills my heart with goodness. It reminds me of how much I have and I should never take Gods grace for granted. We are collecting new and slightly used socks until noon the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I need your help very badly. We are behind from where we were this time last year. Please drop off donations between 8 and 5 at our law office at 99 Doctors Drive Suite 300 Munford, TN 38058. Thank you, feel free to share this post and Happy Friday!
Posted on: Fri, 14 Nov 2014 13:58:37 +0000
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