Dear Beloved Showers Peeps,
Happy Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) to you all! And a prayerful remembrance of Sept 11, 2001.
Amid all the bad news in the world, there is actually good news to report: We had another showers day this last Saturday! Thank you all for making another awesome event. Here are our numbers:
- Sign- Ins 102
- Breakfasts 100+
- Clothing 82 customers served
- Showers taken 37
- Haircuts 20
- Volunteers 20
Bob Oslie was on campus early and opened the doors for us. Our trusty guest crew, Randy, Leon, and Uriah, who always show up early were on hand to help with all the tables and chairs. We got all set up earlier than usual 6:30a.
Once again Devon and Lindsey were with us, as was their little dog, Dublin, who is now so used to the chaos at showers she is not afraid anymore and doesn’t hide under the truck. Walks around like she owns the place which she kinda does. Also Michelle Jampolsky was back from working as a nurse on “Operation Smile” in Abu Dhabi. And once again she brought her dog “Jersey.” Showers has become very dog and cat friendly.
Sidney Hudig brought delicious home made brownies to hand out to our guests. Pat Kreder brought over a cat carrier for one of our guests, and Jeff Bates was back with us with some dandy ideas about how we might automate our sign in procedure and records keeping.
Jack Hayman was manning the clothing table after working on Set-up Friday and helping to load in the sets for Godspell the night before. Sharon Semple and Donna Purdue and Michelle were also there, and thanks to some really nice clothing donations they had some great things to outfit our guests with. Made it feel like working in a swanky store and our guests appreciate the individual attention. We also had some very much needed rolling suitcases to offer this time. Still, we are always short of men’s socks and underwear. But as usually happens on a showers day, passers-by came and dropped off some clothing.
And last, but certainly not least: one of our original volunteers, Kristen Maher, was back with us. She had been gone all summer doing research in South Africa for a book on Township life and politics. She was able to cut hair for a couple of hours and then our guest haircutter Manny Zazueta, who also has been away, came by and stepped in to do the honors. And after he left Devon moved over from cleaning showers to our hair salon and finished up. We are so lucky to have multi-talented and highly energetic volunteers devoted to showers.
Thank you all so very much for your hard work. You really are a blessing to the people you serve, to each other, and to ME!
Claudia Dixon
