What items can I donate to build a Help Bag?

The items in a Help Bag are inexpensive and readily available.

* Individually wrapped snacks. Cracker packs ( like Lance Crackers), cookie packs, 100 calorie packs, anything along those lines. Two are in every Help Bag so a total of 200 of these are needed for 100 Help Bags…aka – can always use some for my stock pile of Lance : ) No chocolate or anything that can melt tho please. : )

* Band-aids. Two boxes of 50 count Band-aids from the Dollar General fills all 100 bags!!

* Moist Towelettes.  These have been more difficult to acquire because store to store they appear in completely different aisles.  The most common brand is Wet Ones! and I have found coupons for them in the past.  Individually wrapped of course : )

* New men’s white socks. They can be used for men or women.

* Tuna. The small tuna cans that can be snap top opened, the envelope type packets, or the crem de la crem- the tuna cracker pillow pack made by Bumble Bee that includes that include crackers and sometimes even a little mandrin orange container!

*Individually wrapped Tylenol type product.  I get them at Sam’s – in a box of 50.  Two boxes cover all 100 Help Bags.

I would like to get One Day Bus or Train tickets in the next Help Bags if at all possible too.

If you would like to donate any of these items please contact me via the contact area of this site and I will be happy to make pick up arrangements! No item too small or unappreciated!!

Why Help Bags? The extented history of their beginnings…

The homeless epidemic reaches every city no matter where you live.  I feel it is human nature to look the other way or even be afraid of people that are not like us.

I had the opportunity to participate in an outreach activity with my church.  I had no idea that one night would change the focus of the rest of my life.  We attended a service and meal at neXus Church, a church which serves the homeless of inner city Charlotte. I met two men that night that laid on both my conscience and my heart.

One man stood and spoke to the congregation.  He spoke of his battles with drug addiction and how he had lost his family and friends, but they never gave up and kept reaching out to him. I was taken back by his candidness and  charisma.  I would like to share in his honesty. At that point in my life,  if had met this same man on the street, dressed as he was, I would have passed him with eyes down. I would never have known the depth and stories his life had. He closed with telling us all  he goes to sleep every night under the bridge watching the red light on the top of the Bank of America building blink on and off. For some reason those words haunt me to this day. I can honestly say I have never seen that light blink again without saying a prayer for that man wherever he is today.

We then joined the neXus congregation for a meal. Sunday night services are ended with a free meal for those who receive a ticket at the door before the service. Only a certain number of tickets ( 100-150 ) are passed out and those receiving a ticket get a home cooked type meal from the volunteers in a room right off the sanctuary.  Those who do not get a ticket wait for the line to clear and they are fed with whatever is left over.

I didn’t see all the logistics that night.  All I saw was a sea of men, women and yes children sitting at tables eating their free meals. Was it their only meal that day? I felt safe and very much led to speak to whomever I came in contact with.

I met the second man who touched my heart at a table in the serving area.  I don’t remember his name, but I do very much remember his story.  He was in his mid 20′s and as it was February he was in a brown winter jacket.  He was all alone at a table and I sat down to talk to him.  He said he had been injured in the Army and sent home.  He was hoping to return to the military eventually but in the mean time drugs had got the better of his life and his family kicked him out.

My family has taken part in anysoldier.com forever!! It is a website that you sign up to correspond and send items to military personnel deployed overseas.  I have made numerous friendships from this site and in my eyes a soldier is nothing short of a hero!! How could this sweet, soft spoken hero be living on the street with nowhere to lay his head at night when just months ago he was risking his life for our families and their freedom! It made me sick to my stomach. I still remember that he ended every sentence with ma’am.

So we left that night – off to our warm homes and blanket filled beds. I was sick to my stomach most of the way home.  I cried falling asleep for many nights after.  God laid these people on my mind and wasn’t going to let me loose.  I followed up with our pastor, Scott Wheeler, and there were no plans to return in the immediate future to neXus.  I was afraid to go by myself. I didn’t say anything to him.  Instead I prayed every night for those people that we had all met. I felt a deep down need to do something more tho.

I had a hypothetical conversation with my pastor. He is a great man and I believe has a direct link to God’s ear : )  He and his family talk the talk – but the reason we all love them so much is that they walk that walk too!! Our conversation ended in him drawing a graph of ‘skinny moments’.

He explained he felt that the majority of your life you can chose a,b, or c and the end result will be pretty close. But there are those few ‘skinny moments’ where until you choose to go the exact route God wants you to you are at an impasse.  It was like a great big old light bulb went off!!

Penny Smullen – the homeless of the area are your skinny moment!!

I called Ruth Exis ( such an amazing woman!!) the next morning and told her I would like to start volunteering. She put me in contact with Kathleen O’Neill, volunteer coordinator.  When I say this woman has a yearning in her soul to save the world one person at a time – words just can not describe the good in her heart!! I joke with her but I am truly in awe of her!

And so I began! Every other Sunday I would help serve the meal after the worship service.  I felt I was in the right place but that I could do more! And now after a year and half or so Help Bags have begun.

I take donations from friends, family and my church, United Wesleyan Church is a huge contributor! Gallon sized ziploc bags that can be reused for their own personal items are filled with:

2 individually wrapped snacks – like Lance crackers or something along those lines

1 moist towelette – it isnt a shower but it may help

1 individually wrapped packet of a Tylenol type product

2 Band-aids

a pair of mens new white socks

and depending on donation quantities- a pack of easy open tuna

I am also trying to incorporate a one day bus pass in the next bags.

Will any of these items stop hunger or homelessness? Of course not.  But do 99% of the people that get one at the door with their ticket on Help Bag pass out day stop and say thank you and smile?  Yes they do.  It has a few essentials and it may just ‘help’ them thru that day.

To date 200 help Bags have been passed out in Charlotte and I see big things for these little bags in the future!

Thanks for reading – now you know the why and the what! Come join me and meet the who…