My city has not seen the greatest glory years of it's past in a long, long time. The inner city is dangerous, the outer city is abandoned, and the price of homes has tumbled down into the range of the ridiculous. My city has felt like it is dying for awhile, and this terrible economy is the extra rock that will make the raft sink. I have had friends leave and move to other states just to get away from the crime and poverty here. I can't do that, though. I am a business owner and this is my home. As such, it is my responsibility to help in any way possible, so I have funded a modest soup kitchen for the last several years. It wasn't until I brought in the Christmas t-shirts last year that I started seeing people smile, though.
The story of how we used Christmas t-shirts to brighten the dreary hearts of some very sad people is not a complicated one. When we opened this homeless kitchen in the inner city, it was for one purpose only: to ease the suffering of those less fortunate. I never wanted anything in return, all workers are voluntary (including my wife and myself), and all donations are funneled right back into the organization to improve it. I have invested a lot of time and money into this. All I ever wanted was to see some people who are having some very bad luck catch a break and smile. Before last Christmas, I had never seen a single smile on a single face of someone coming through those doors for help.
I'm not trying to mislead anyone into thinking that this has not been the most wonderful thing in my life besides my own children and wife. Working at this homeless kitchen has been the highlight of my career and it has become almost an obsession for me to make it bigger and better every year. I have found that I really do enjoy helping people. When I told my dear wife about my disappointment in the lack of happiness at the kitchen, she just kissed me and said that the place needed some brighter color, is all. Color always makes people happy. Colors like red and green. The colors of Christmas t-shirts.
I got on the Internet and did some snooping around, because I really wasn't going to be able to hatch my plan all by myself. I don't know if it was the generosity that the holidays impart on us, but I was really taken aback by how much support I was getting from complete strangers. I only had to fax my tax information to a few companies, and I got most of the Christmas t-shirts at the cost of production and the rest for free. People really are amazing. When Christmas rolled around, we set the kitchen up really nice with rows of shirts by the door organized by sizes.
When we opened the doors, I stood at the end of the servers line and waited in anticipation. The people walking through the door looked around at the decorations with dull, hopeless eyes. When the walked around the room, they all slowed down at the tables with the Christmas t-shirts on them. There was a sign that read, "Merry Christmas! From us to YOU! Take one!" One by one they all took a shirt and pulled it over their dirty layers, adding one more. Dull colors that filtered in were replaced by vibrant greens and reds. Pretty soon, people were laughing and walking through the server line. There were smiles on their faces. It's amazing what a little Christmas color can do.
The story of how we used Christmas t-shirts to brighten the dreary hearts of some very sad people is not a complicated one. When we opened this homeless kitchen in the inner city, it was for one purpose only: to ease the suffering of those less fortunate. I never wanted anything in return, all workers are voluntary (including my wife and myself), and all donations are funneled right back into the organization to improve it. I have invested a lot of time and money into this. All I ever wanted was to see some people who are having some very bad luck catch a break and smile. Before last Christmas, I had never seen a single smile on a single face of someone coming through those doors for help.
I'm not trying to mislead anyone into thinking that this has not been the most wonderful thing in my life besides my own children and wife. Working at this homeless kitchen has been the highlight of my career and it has become almost an obsession for me to make it bigger and better every year. I have found that I really do enjoy helping people. When I told my dear wife about my disappointment in the lack of happiness at the kitchen, she just kissed me and said that the place needed some brighter color, is all. Color always makes people happy. Colors like red and green. The colors of Christmas t-shirts.
I got on the Internet and did some snooping around, because I really wasn't going to be able to hatch my plan all by myself. I don't know if it was the generosity that the holidays impart on us, but I was really taken aback by how much support I was getting from complete strangers. I only had to fax my tax information to a few companies, and I got most of the Christmas t-shirts at the cost of production and the rest for free. People really are amazing. When Christmas rolled around, we set the kitchen up really nice with rows of shirts by the door organized by sizes.
When we opened the doors, I stood at the end of the servers line and waited in anticipation. The people walking through the door looked around at the decorations with dull, hopeless eyes. When the walked around the room, they all slowed down at the tables with the Christmas t-shirts on them. There was a sign that read, "Merry Christmas! From us to YOU! Take one!" One by one they all took a shirt and pulled it over their dirty layers, adding one more. Dull colors that filtered in were replaced by vibrant greens and reds. Pretty soon, people were laughing and walking through the server line. There were smiles on their faces. It's amazing what a little Christmas color can do.
About the Author:
You can find a vast selection of cute Holiday shirts by visiting our web pages. To shop our online catalog of hilarious Christmas tees, check out the links on our home page right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment