Sunday, December 30, 2012

Homeless Christmas Pictures 2012


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Christmas 2012

On Saturday, December 22nd, together we made Christmas for the homeless people in the City parks with the help of many kind hearted people, some of which helped out by donating their time, a few with the cooking, & others helped out with donations of items needed for the 80 grocery bag sized gift bags, with funds, or home baked cookies.  :)   We ended up feeding 87 people that evening at Santa Rita Park & at Estevan Park. Everyone was very appreciative & very grateful for the food & especially for the gift bags.  :)  

Then on Christmas Eve I went back to the two parks with 15 great big pizza's & a lady stopped by & gave us another two, which we really ended up needing to feed all 44 homeless.  :)   Thank you lots Marilyn & Michael W. for being there for me on Christmas Eve by helping to serve the food & transporting the bags !!   :)  

First of all I would like to thank my almost 90 year old Hilde for making 8 gigantic meat loaves by herself for the Christmas dinner & a huge pot of her famous gravy to go with it.  :)  She cooked about 30 lbs. of ground beef for about 90 servings !!  Hilde, you are one of the kindest & most selfless people I know !!   I feel so blessed by you walking this path with me & by your dedication to this project of putting food into peoples bellies.  :)  I So Love You !!   :)

For Christmas dinner we also served 2 huge pots of mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans with cranberries & bacon, corn, cranberry sauce, fresh tossed salad, jello with fruit & Cool Whip (which often got called Miracle Whip  ;) ), home baked cookies & bottled water.  I think all the homeless were ready for a nap after that big meal with their full bellies, which made all of us servers feel good too.  :)

We took many pictures & I still have to learn to post them on my blog.  :o   :)  I will give it my best shot & try to post them separately so you can see some of them.   :)  Please check my blog   http://karin-feedingthehomeless.blogspot.com
again in a few days for those & other entries.   :)

Hilde & I decided that we will continue to serve our big meals on the last Saturday of each month.  :)   We are getting older & our bodies get tired quicker.  And I need to focus more on my business, since that brings my income. 

Each grocery bag was stuffed with brand-new underwear, socks, beanies, scarves & gloves.  Also shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, shaving cream, razors, combs, wet wipes, tooth paste & brushes, some playing cards, books, magazines, home baked cookies, lots of Christmas candy & there were many Christmas cards in each bag.  We also added many snack packs & granola bars this year. Those bags were quite heavy with all kinds of goodies.   :)

There are soooo many people to thank & I hope that I won't forget anyone.  I made many notes along the way for that reason, lil' slips of paper everywhere.  ;)

Thank you each & everyone of you for your kind help, for without you I could not have done this once again !!  :)  We all pulled together & opened our hearts to make a difference in some peoples lives who are struggling more than we are, and we made them happy, which is the best feeling in the whole world.  :) 

I would like to begin by thanking the Angels individually who donated funds for the food & some of the items for the gift bags.  :)   Thank you Jane, K.C., Alice, Jhan, Cristina & her lil' Kiersten for saving their change for months to donate, Charles, Suzzanne & all her friends who purchased squares for the quilts & sent the left-over money for food, Melany, Sylvia to honor her son Alan, my "Cookie Family" & Michael H.  Also a huge thank you to Mark & Frank & the BSD Winers & Diners Club for so helping out !!  :)   You made me cry with your Kindness.  :)  Because of you I was able to go again on Christmas Eve with the many pizzas.   :) 

Some of the other helpers I already thanked in my Thanksgiving blog, which carries forward to Christmas too & I will send this entry to you also.  :)

Thank you Tom, Mary-Ann & Sue for helping with the cooking of the Christmas dinner !!   I hope Hilde wasn't too hard on you.  :)  Just kidding, my sweet Hilde !!   :)  And thank you Marilyn for making that huge bowl of Jello with fruit for dessert, especially since you don't really like to cook !!   :)

Thank you Hilde, June & Mel, Sally, Mary-Ann, Marilyn, Haroon, Umair, Adeel, Neida & Kaukab for serving the food at both parks.  We had a long line up of homeless & a long line up of servers too.   :)   Made it so much easier for all of us.  :)

Thank you Sally & Harvey, and Keith & Kristin for loading up all the gift bags in your trucks & for handing them out in the parks !!   :)   And for hanging out with us in between the meals at both parks.  Laura & Steve, thanks for coming to the first park & for being there with us !!   :)

Thank you Marilyn, Sue, Laura & Steve, and Marianne with her two lil' ones Chelsey (3) & Heather (10) for helping stuff all those gift bags !!  :) 

Thank you Sara & Rae, Marianne, Heather & Chelsey for all the cookies you baked !!  :)  We had about 360 total.  :)   And thank you Carolina, Cristina, Dave & Linda, Sobia for all the candy you donated.  :)  Those homeless have a big sweet tooth & all those were big treats.  :) 

Thank you so much Jeanne, Michelle, Alvin, Laura & Steve for donating some of the snack packs & granola bars for the gift bags.   :)   I always like to have those handy throughout the year to help tie the homeless over when they are hungry & don't have any food available. 

Alvin, thank you also for donating a few of the beanies !!  That was very thoughtful of you & at the end I was a few short, so it worked out great !!   :)

Jeanne, thank you also for getting all those books donated from Bookman's.
And a great big thank you goes to Bookman's for donating the 5 big boxes full.  You guys are awesome & always come through for me.  :)   

Dave & Linda thank you so for donating some of the food for the Christmas meal !!  You two are just incredible & are a constant in me helping out with this project !!  I am always so grateful to you both !!  :)   Your Hearts a big & you fill mine with your Kindness !!  :)

And then there is the Helping Hands (knitting & crocheting) Club !!  You always blow me away with the generosity of your members.  Thank you Dianne & Caroline & everyone else for all your donations of food, toiletry items, playing cards, combs, some clothes, plates, forks & napkins, along with lots of candy & chocolates & much, much more.   And thank you for writing all those Christmas cards for the homeless too.   :)   You ladies are incredible & you all have huge Wings !!   :)  Your service to those in need is awesome & goes all over the world !! 

Thank you Pat for writing so many Christmas cards & all those stickers !!  :)  The homeless must have felt loved by all those cards that were in their bags.   :)   And thank you for helping dish out the food at the parks !!   :)  It was good to see you again after all this time.   :)

Thank you so much  Hilde's Granddaughter Andrea for all those toothbrushes !!  :)   They were so needed.  That was really dear of you !!  :)

Cheryl, thank you so much for crocheting 32 beanies for the homeless, yes 32 !!  :)  Your kindness is incredible & brought tears to my eyes when you brought them over.  :)   There will be many warm heads this year in the parks thanks to you.   :)

Thank you Marilyn, Liz & James for helping me unload & clean up all those big pots, containers & my kitchen after the big meal !!  That meant a lot to me & was such a huge help !!   :)  I was so tired by then.   :o

Suzzanne, you simply blew me away with your thoughtfulness & your determination to make a difference !!   :)   Your raising funds & then sewing together 4 great big quilts for the homeless was such a gift of yourself, it was an incredible act of Kindness !!  When I opened the box of quilts all this Love came bubbling out of it & it made me cry tears of happiness.   :)   Thank you so much Suzzanne for sending the quilts all the way from Wisconsin & the left-over money from "selling" the squares.  And thank you hugely Jennifer, Robert, Elizabeth, Lowell, Cath, Lona, Beth, Dan, Cathy & Gail who all helped Suzzanne with her project for our homeless here !!  :) 

I made sure that these beautiful quilts were going to homeless who would honor them & who really needed them.  The first quilt went to an 82 year old homeless woman who with her shopping cart roams all over Tucson's east side.  She often sits on bus benches & chats with people.  My Cristina has taken her into her Heart & so have I.  :)  The second quilt went to another homeless woman in her 50ies, who always shows up for each meal & is always very humble & grateful.  :)  The third quilt went to an old man who used to live out of his truck, but it broke down, so he is hopefully in a shelter now !!  I knew he would honor all the Love in his quilt.  :)   And the fourth went to a friend of the old man's, who always helps me serve some of the food.  He has a little crush on me & everyone teases me about it.  :)   We know that these four people will sleep a little warmer now & that they are enveloped by the Love of those quilts !!   :)  

And another great big Thank You goes out to Sobia & all her helpers from the Ahmeddiya Movement in Islam Mosque for making such a huge difference with their enormous amount of Love & Generosity this Christmas !!   :)   You also made me cry happy tears !!  :)

Thank you for all the many, many items you donated, like 80 each shampoos, conditioners, deodorants, shaving cream, razors, books, magazines & chocolates too.  :)  It filled up my SUV when I went to pick it all up.  And thank you for sending over the three young men, Atta, Ali & Fuzeal, just to unload my car at my home, because it was all too heavy for me.  :)  That was incredibly thoughtful of you !!  Please thank your Dad for me too, Haroon & Umair for all their loving help with this !!  :)    You all are sharing & teaching Love so beautifully & you are a great big Ray of Light in my & the homeless people's lives !!   :)   Thank you for all your service work here in Tucson !!  :)   I hope that we will continue to work together & I am here to help you the best I can !!   :)   Just let me know !! 

It was on December 13th when I picked up all the items Sobia's mosque donated, it was the day of the shooting in Newtown.  My last blog entry is about the moment I heard it on the radio.  Hopefully it is inspirational to you & I offer it to anyone to read.  :)

Another huge Thank You goes to Mayumi & her boss Randy, from Chiral Research for all the big help you all provided !!  :)   Mayumi thank you for remembering that I feed the homeless & for suggesting to your boss to help !!  :)   I had missed you at the bank & always wondered how you were doing.  You are the sweetest ever !!  :)

Randy, thank you for your generous help of donating the 80 each scarves, bars of soap & the wet wipes !!  :)   Your help was so generous & I am so grateful to you for jumping in at the end of things !!  :)    How was your Christmas Party dinner ??   I so admire you for making pasta from scratch for all your employees that night !!   :)  

So many people to thank this year for making such a huge difference for the homeless & for offering your Love & Kindness !!   In these trying times it is that much more important that we all pull together to help each other & that is the most important & kind thing to do !!  :)  I am ever so grateful to each & everyone of you & hopefully we can do this again next Christmas !!  :) 

Meanwhile Hilde & I will continue to cook & serve food to the homeless again once a month.  :)   And probably around some of the big holidays too, like Valentine's Day, Easter, Veterans Day, etc.  :)  

Big Hugs to each of you & my most deepest Gratitude !!   :) 

You all are my Earth Angels !!  :)  

Friday, December 14, 2012

Good & Evil in the Same Moment

Today I experienced good & evil in the very same moment & it was incredibly emotional.

I need to back up a little bit in order for this story to make sense. 

Not long ago a woman with a beautiful soul contacted me about helping once a month with feeding the homeless.  Her name is Sobia & she & her family are from the beautiful white Islamic Mosque on West Speedway, near Stone & Main Street.   :)    

Sobia told me that she also would like to help out with the 80 gift bags for the homeless for Christ-mas I am putting together again this year.  She let me know that the people from the mosque will provide all the deodorants, shampoo, conditioners, shaving creams, razors & bars of soap I would need, which multiplied by 80 is huge.  :o

Today as I was driving up to the Mosque to pick up these items the news came on about the terrible  shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, & I sat there just crying.  At the same moment Sobia's family was loading all these incredible donations into my car for the homeless & those big boxes just kept coming & coming.  We were worried about fitting it all into my SUV, it was so much.   :)

At that very moment I experienced evil & good at the exact same time for the first time in my life.  Normally it is one or the other, but never both at the same moment.  I felt how the good covered over the evil & triumphed over it.  It is quite difficult to describe the emotions that I was feeling at that very moment.  It was like one of my eyes was crying in sadness & my other eye was crying tears of joy, all at the same time. 

Sobia & all your loving family & friends, I am ever soooo grateful to you for your enormous Generosity & Caring & for giving me this experience today, which will live on forever in my Heart.   :)   

You all are the embodyment of Goodness & Love !!  :) 

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Christ-mas Dinner - December 22, 2012

We will be serving Christ-mas dinner to the Homeless in the City parks on Saturday, December 22,  2012,

around 5:00 PM at Santa Rita Park (22nd Street & 3rd Ave.)  &

around 6:30 PM at Estevan Park  (Main Street & 1st Street, just 1 block south of Speedway near I 10). 

We will be celebrating Christ-mas then.   :)    

Monday, November 19, 2012

Thanksgiving Dinner in the City Parks

On Saturday we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Homeless in two City parks.  :)
I wanted to provide it a little early, since on the actual Thanksgiving day many churches & organizations open their doors to feed the Homeless & this way they all will get two great big meals, instead of just one.  :)    We fed 77 people altogether & left behind many happy tummies.  :)   And everyone had a wonderful time.  :)

I am so very, very grateful to each & everyone of you who helped in some way or another !!  :)   It definately takes a village to feed the Homeless.  :)

We had 5 huge turkeys, 2 great big trays of stuffing thanks to our dear Hilde, 2 huge pots of mashed potatoes, plus Hilde's famous gravy, one huge pot each of corn & green beans with bacon.  Also a big container full of tossed salad, a huge bowl of Jello with fruit & lots of Cool Whip, cookies, chocolates, & bottled water.  We also had cranberry sauce, which I forgot about & I realized after I got back home that it was still in my car.  :o   :) 

Thank you Cristina, Rae, & Marianne for roasting the turkeys & thank you Gopal for brining & smoking the other two.  Our cars & my home smelled so wonderful all afternoon & evening from the smoked turkeys.  :)   I kept smelling my hands.  :)   It was so kind of all of you to take on a project that big !!  :) 

Thank you Elizabeth & Alberto for donating two of the turkeys for roasting !!
You are always there when I call for your help.  :)  

Thank you Marianne, Mary Ann, & Sue for helping Hilde & me out in the kitchen, especially at the end when things got a little hectic with loading up, etc.   :)   You are so appreciated !!  

Thank you so much Mary Ann & Marilyn for helping us serve at the parks, we had a lot of food to dish out.  :)  

Thank you Dave & Linda for providing some of the groceries for the meal & for treating the Homeless with all those Hershey Kisses.   :)    And thank you Dave for loading up the cars once more & getting us on our way.   :)   You are our muscle man.  ;)   

Thank you Rae & Sara for baking 200 wonderful cookies for the occasion & making it so easy for me by putting them in 100 little bags.   :)   You even borrowed a friends kitchen to be able to make them all.  :)  The cookies were a big hit.  It seems that many of the Homeless have a great big sweet tooth.  :)  I know the feeling.  ;)

Thank you Marilyn for making that huge bowl of Jello with the fruit cocktail, even though you don't like to cook at all.  That was such a great gift of yourself !!   :)

And thank you each & everyone who donated funds from far & near to make this possible once more !!  :)  Your Generosity & Kindness touched me deeply & I will write more about all that in the Christmas blog entry. 

Once again ................... Kindness is alive in Tucson & in America !!   :)    

You all are so incredible & I am so humbled by each one of you !!   :)




 

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Kindness In Tucson

A few days ago one of my refrigerators / freezers for the Homeless stopped working & the timing was terrible, since the big Thanksgiving dinner is in two weeks & there is lots of food to cool & freeze. 

Once more I called Chris Edwards, the owner of Tucson Appliance Company & asked if he would be open to sending someone over to hopefully repair the fridge. 
Chris didn't want to repair it & insisted on sending another fridge over.  I argued with this kind man but he insisted to having another delivered the next afternoon & the old one hauled off.  It arrived yesterday, free of charge & it is the second refrigerator Chris has donated to my Feeding the Homeless.   :)

Chris' Kindness is amazing & made me cry once more .... happy tears of course !!  :)

Please everyone support this man & his business, he so deserves our support !!  :)  
I am so very grateful to Chris !!  :)  

Kindness is Alive Here in Tucson !!   :)  

Sunday, November 4, 2012

And Lots More Sandwiches

Since I had so many sandwiches left I headed back to the parks again today.  :)  Another 32 homeless people were fed & they were again very thankful for the food. 

Megan, your Kindness fed 76 hungry people this weekend & I am ever so grateful to you for being so thoughtful !!  :)  

I got to see some old friends & a lot of new people again.  Santa Rita Park was filled with the homeless & it hurt my heart to see that.  Our slower economy is definitely visible in those parks.  Well, we'll just keep trucking along & do what we can to help out.  :) 

The Thanksgiving meal is just around the corner !!  :)   And not too far after that there will be Christmas food.  :)

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Lots of Sandwiches

Today I received a call from Megan, who works for the University of Phoenix, right here in Tucson.  She shared with me that she had read my blog & that there are a lot of sandwiches left over from an event there.  She wondered if I could use them for the homeless.  :) 

When I got there to pick them up I was totally amazed at how many there were, along with three big trays of potato & pasta salads.  Also a big tray of cookies & brownies, pickles & a large bag of chips.  :)

Today I was able to feed 44 people at Santa Rita, Estevan, & Stone Park & I still have a bunch of sandwiches left over, so I can go again tomorrow.  :)  

Thank you Megan for your thoughtfulness & for caring so much for the people who need food right here in our city !!   :)   You are an Angel !!   :)

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Calling all Angels !! :)

It is with much excitement that I am sharing with you all that Hilde (Now 88 years young) & I have decided to cook a big Thanksgiving & also a big Christmas dinner for the homeless people in Santa Rita Park & in Estevan Park again this year.  :)

I am humbly asking for donations to pull this off once more.   :)

My dream is to get enough money together so I can make gift bags again for the homeless this Christmas.  :)  They so enjoyed them last year.

For Thanksgiving, like last year, I will need six volunteers to roast & carve a turkey each, on Saturday, November 17th, & then to bring it here in the early afternoon.  Hilde & I will cook the rest needed for the meals.    :)

To all you bakers out there, for Christmas it would be awesome to have lots of home-baked cookies once more.   :)   It looks like we will be serving the dinner on Saturday, December 22nd.  I will need the cookies at least 3 days before then, as they will have to be counted out & bagged.

Thank you all soooo much for your Kindness & Help !!   :)

Karin

L. Karin Elliott
3364 E. Popinac Loop
Tucson, AZ 85716
520-326-2236
LKarinElliott@aol.com

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Endings

Sometimes good things come to an end & it becomes time to move on. 

On Monday, January 23, 2012, I served the last meal in Tucson's City parks to the homeless there.  In the past two years I have fed, for most part single-handedly, almost 10,000 people.  :)

I have become very tired & it is time to rest for a little while now.  Also, I feel that I have come full circle with feeding the homeless since Darryl died recently.  It all began because of Darryl & now that he is no longer here on earth, it is ending with his being gone.  It totally feels complete. 

After a little while I will do something else & I am thinking about something with or for children, as I am ready for some innocence in my life.   :)

Thank you for all your loving & kind support during the past two years !!   :)
I could not have pulled this off without you & I am very, very grateful to each & every one of you !!  :)

With so much Love & even more Gratitude !!

Karin

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Christmas 2011

Where do I begin ?? My Heart is overflowing with Gratitude to each & everyone of you who helped make this possible another Season !!  :)

It has been another successful Christmas & the Homeless people in both parks received new socks, underwear, new jackets, t-shirts, beanies, gloves, some scarves, some hand-crochet blankets, along with new tooth brushes & tooth paste, also some deodorant, shampoo, razors, tissues & bars of soap.  There were cracker snacks, soups, peanut butter treats, cereal, energy bars, etc., things that would help when hungry.  :)

And many books to read for everyone.  We were able to put at least two to three books in each grocery gift bag.  Trader Joe's was kind enough to let me have about 100 bags for this.  :)  I told them that the homeless would advertise for Trader Joe's that way.  :)

We put together many Christmas baggies filled with lots of home-baked cookies, & candy.  Everyone got candy canes, plus lots of other candy & chocolates too.   :)  

The children at "Our Mother of Sorrow Preschool" made Christmas cards & they were precious, being made by 4 year olds.  :)   Thank you Mrs. Davis & Mrs. Diaz !!   :)

We also had a whole bunch of really incredible Christmas cards to put into the bags, which were made by older children at "Canyon View Elementary School" & by "Pueblo Gardens School".  :)  These cards were so beautiful & what these children wrote touched us all very deeply.  Some had glitter on them & others Angels & beautiful drawings.  Some of them made me cry, just reading them.   Thank you Ms. Rodriguez-Loya, Ms. Saldamando, Ms. Aubrey, Ms. Foster, & Ms. Semler !!  :)

Tania (11) & Adiel (6) Carvajal also made some precious Christmas cards too.  Thank you both !!  :)  And thank you to this beautiful family, the "Cookie Family",  for donating some money for all of this !!  :)

On December 19th, Hilde made her much requested meat loaf & her famous gravy for Christmas dinner at the two parks & we added mash potatoes, corn, green beans with bacon, & jello with lots of fruit in it, along with whip cream & cookies. Everyone received a can of soda, which Sara Turner & Virginia Nurre donated so kindly !!  :)   Thank you my dear Hilde for making all those huge trays of meat loaf for two days & the two great big pots of gravy too.  The meal was much appreciated by everyone !!  :)  For those of you who don't know, Hilde is 87 years young & she has cooked with me for over a year now twice a week, every week.  :)  She is such an inspiration to us all !!  :)

Thank you Susie Thompson for making the two huge bowls of jello with all the fruit for dessert !!  :)  I know that wasn't easy when you are not used to cooking such huge quantities.

My dear friend Jane Ash donated two huge wreaths & we hung one in each park along with some gold lame' streamers.  The wreaths were beautiful & helped everyone there to get into the Christmas Spirit.  I had Christmas music blasting from my car radio the whole time we served the food & handed out all the gift bags.  :)   All the food servers wore Santa hats.  :)   It was truly magical & will forever remain a memory.  :)

I have a long list of people to thank for helping to pull all this off one way or another.  Much, much THANKS goes to each & everyone of you:

Cristina Ball for all the cookies & candy & for all your loving support of this for over a year now !!  :)

Jane Ash for the wreaths, santa hats, candy, chocolates, hygene items, beanies, socks, gloves & the money on top of all this.  You are a Blessing, Jane !!  :)

My neighbor Sue Bradford for the candy, beanies & tissues.  Thanks Dear !!  :)

Laurel Gregory, my long time friend in Oregon, for the 16 brand-new jackets & all those warm socks, beanies, gloves & underwear.  And Sarah Robles for helping with that too.   :)   You are The Best !!  :)

Marian & George for baking a bunch of Christmas tree cookies.  :)

Diana (Hilde's friend) for donating food, gloves, scarves & some money for the meat loaf.  :)  Thank you also for your continued support, you are great !!  :)

The "Helping Hands Crafters" for all those incredible hand crochet blankets & for all the hand knit caps.  Your hands were very busy & are very much appreciated !!  :)

Celina Pena for donating socks, beanies, books & deodorant.  :)

Tracy (Cristina's friend) for all the hygene items, cookies & candy !!  You are awesome Girl !!  :)

Maggie & Brian Disbury for all the food, beanies & hygene items, especially all the Energy Bars.  :)  You two are very beautiful people & I am so grateful for you both !!  :)

Virginia Nurre for the huge amount of cookies you baked & for putting them in smaller bags to make it easier for me to distribute.  You are ever so thoughtful, Dear !!  :)  And thank you for the candy & the books too. 

Jeanne Pilegi thanks for all the cookies you donated !!  You are much appreciated always !!  :)

Reilly Zoda donated four huge boxes of books.  It is so fun now when I drive up to the parks to see the homeless sitting there reading your books.  It always puts a smile on my face.  :)  Thank you Reilly for caring !!  :)

My dear Mary Helen (83), thank you for all the candy you brought over to help out !!  :)

And my dear Katherine Knez (also 83 years young) for your kind donation !!  :)

The Rosary Makers Club of Tucson for all the paper goods & canned food !!  I so appreciate your continued help with this !!  :)

And then there is Mark Irvin's group, called the Winers & Diners, who collected & sent the biggest donation I have ever received.  I cried happy tears for at least a couple of days & then came another big donation from Frank Dahl, who is also a member of the club.  More tears of course.  :)   Part of your donations helped so much with the Christmas meal & provided some of the items I didn't have enough of, like warm beanies, gloves, underwear, etc.  You made such a big difference with all your Kindness !!  :)

My neighbor Sara Turner, who donated a lot of soda's & lots of snack food, along with candy too.  :) 

A big thank you goes to Dawn Richards in Minnesota, who once more sent four huge boxes of clothes for the homeless, with many, many t-shirts.  Thank you Dawn for your loving support, you are incredible !!  :)  The postage alone ......   :o

Mark Salcido for letting us borrow your truck so we could transport all those gift bags from my home to the two parks.  We couldn't have done this without your generosity !!  :)

Rachel & Michael Wood for the money you sent so kindly from beautiful San Diego !!  :)

And to Bill & Patti Mages all the way from Chicago, for your dear contribution !!  Thank you so much for thinking of the Homeless !!  :)

I hope that I didn't forget anyone & if I did, please forgive me.  :)  It took a lot to pull all this off for so many people & I think I kept a pretty good record of it all.  I am still tired & need a little time to bounce back to normal again.

A collective THANK YOU to all of you & may the Blessings you gave to the Homeless return to you in many beautiful ways each & every day !!  :)   May You Be Blessed Always & In All Ways !!  :)