Thoughts.com

It truly is so hard to believe... that we have reached the end of our One Love Road Trip of 2011.

Sharon and I are so deeply changed by this experience and will hold it dear to our hearts for the rest of our lives.

Throughout the entire journey, Chicago has been standing out for us in a spectacular way - as this would be the city where we get to donate the One Love Road Trip vehicle on behalf of Thoughts Foundation. :)

We had an amazing time volunteering with The Cara Program! They are a very positive and motivating bunch of people. We also had the pleasure of working with our dear friend - and co-worker out of Chicago - Rosemary! She came out to help us for our Chicago stop and brought her wonderful brother, Bill, along too :D

The Cara Program primarily focuses on the advancement, skill training, and job placement of people who may be anyone from a victim of domestic violence, to someone who was homeless just before joining their team of students.

They offer skill set training in their computer lab. It's extensively taught and they are continually tested on their newly acquired skills and knowledge. They must go through a series of mock interviews and receive a certain number of "hires" - or test acing. This is something that Sharon, Rosemary, and I assisted with, while volunteering with this organization. When we first got there, we noticed the flatscreen that sat on the wall and displayed important announcements. We liked what we saw :)

We then took a tour of the entire facility and were briefed on the details of their organization and what we would be doing. Debra, one of the Cara Program's Development Associates, was the one who explained everything to us and showed us the ropes. In addition to the computer lab offered to the students, they also provide lockers, a work clothes room where students can pick out work clothes -free- that are donated to the Cara Program. The clothes were awesome! Designer suits and other items. All in perfect shape and high in quality. They also provide telephone rooms where the students can call for interviews. Another thing they provide are classrooms and other helpful outlets & resources. Debra played a video of their motivational morning meetings that the staff holds with their students every morning. It is truly awesome. Click here to watch one of their inspiring motivationals and you will see that they know how to keep their students engaged, excited, and optimistic about their opportunities, their potential, and their hope for a solid job and brighter future. It is definitely something to keep spirits lifted.

They even had a special area in their motivational room for students who have graduated and left their own quotes and thoughts on a framed plaque on the wall :)

After touring and meeting everyone, and also conducting some mock interviews of our own and working with this awesome staff, we all gathered in the employees lounge to share some lunch and meet the recipient of the our One Love Road Trip vehicle. The best part of all of this was that the recipient had no idea that she was there to accept a car. She thought she was just being invited to lunch by the Cara Program staff and to "meet some visitors" :)

When we met Niketta, we got to hear her story, and we knew -without a doubt- that this was the perfect person to receive this car. The staff of the Cara Program worked long and hard to decide on which student would receive this amazing gift. They decided on Niketta.

Niketta first joined on with the Cara Program in May of 2010 from living in a homeless shelter. She has 3 young daughters - ages 1, 7, and 13. She was a victim of serious domestic violence and one day decided to take a stand and make some changes, as scary as it was and as powerless as she was left. Still, she kept her head up and braved forward for the sake of her children. She worked extremely hard with the Cara Program and was the first student to ever ring their bell - which meant they passed the mock interviews and landed their first real job! She got hired on with an amazing company in October 2010 and works there at present time. She will make one year on the job and become an official graduate of the Cara Program in October 2011. She is part of a pilot program funded by the Eleanor Foundation. All Cara students receive one full year of retention services to ensure that they can "stick and stay" on the job, and 100 women in the Eleanor program receive an additional year of support so that they can focus on finding advancement opportunities. Niketta will work regularly with both her individual Development Specialist and an Advancement Specialist to work towards these goals. She would also like to go back to school in the near future.

We know she is determined, and you can also see it in the numbers and stats. This is definitely one tremendously strong and determined woman. She was explaining to us that every morning, she has to wake up with her 3 daughters at 4:30am and get everyone fed, dressed, and then taken to a public bus stop where they all have to stand there on cold, dark mornings waiting for the bus so they can each get to school - and then finally, Niketta to work. They do this every morning, and every evening. Waking up 4 hours before you even have to be at work to stand out in the cold with your little ones so that you can continue to fight daily to make a better life for your family? Well... we'll fix that. ;)

So after many nerves and excited emotions forcing their way out of everyone's bodies as the anticipation built up, it was time to present Niketta with her new car... Right after we surprised the staff and presented the Cara Program with $2,000 to help them continue their amazing work with people who really do want another chance at life.

We can't thank the Cara Program enough for being the organization that they are, and for carefully selecting someone as worthy as Niketta to receive the vehicle that drove us through many states, thousand of miles, many charities, many stories, many smiles, a lot of tears, and a mission of charity awareness - accomplished. We are overjoyed to see that Niketta and her daughters will no longer have to worry about taking a bus in the cold or carrying groceries home.

She was all smiles in her new car!

And Niketta was kind enough to send us a video of her breaking the exciting news to her daughters!! :D

Thank you, Cara Program of Chicago! You will live on in our hearts forever.

One Love :heart:

This could not be more surreal for us...

Here we are, approaching the last day of our One Love Road Trip.

Time to say "goodbye, Pittsburgh" and "hello, Chicago!"

This is so bittersweet for us...

We have met so many amazing people along this journey. Heard so many incredible stories. Shared sadness and grief, tears and laughter, joys and devastation... but though this is almost the end of our 2011 One Love Road Trip, it's not over yet. :)

Tomorrow, we have the honor of working with the Cara Program.  We are volunteering with them and then will be donating our road trip vehicle to one of their students - a mother of 3, in need of transportation so she can continue to make strides in improving the quality of her and her childrens lives. We cannot wait for what tomorrow has in store for us!

Volunteering at the Boston homeless shelter/soup kitchen, Rosie's Place, was one of the saddest and hardest things I've ever had to endure...

We worked with the amazing woman who heads their staff. Her name is Adiba. She immediately showed us where we were needed and we quickly got to work.

Sharon and I started by locating milk carafes and filled them, then set them up for the homeless and hungry individuals that would soon be pouring in for dinner. After setting up all of the milk, we began foiling up tray after tray of donated lasagna, so the cook could just stick it in the oven one after another. Then, we sanitized their counters and set up the condiments, trays, and salad. 

Soon after these tasks were completed, the people started pouring in. Sharon was working the area by the condiments and I was tasked to stand at the food line's first stop, where I set napkins on a tray as each person approached me. There was a big basket of assorted bread and they were cut up into small pieces. I was told that the people could ask for as much bread as they wanted. I would ask each person whether they'd like wheat bread, white bread, or both. Some took only 1 kind, some took both, some declined bread entirely. I also handed them butter packets for their bread. Then, they told me whether or not they'd like a bowl of soup. If they did, the woman working by my side would pour a big bowl and hand it to me. Some of the people were smiling and grateful. Some wouldn't utter any expression, nor look you in the eyes. There were mostly women who showed up on this night. The roughest part for me was that there were also children coming in with their moms. I had to use everything in me to contain my emotions and be strong. It was incredibly sad, and difficult to get through. 

After about an hour of serving the bread and soup, and while the lasagna baked in their ovens, they broke out their sheets of bingo paper and playing kits. I was told that is what the homeless people loved playing. They began asking if we'd be playing bingo, from the moment they walked into the building... I could tell this was something they looked forward to. If someone wins at their bingo game, they get a ticket. They can then hand in their ticket at the end of the dinner shift for a prize bag of toiletries or other needed items they can use. Sharon was tasked to keep track of the bingo winners and verify their numbers.  I noticed that one of the homeless women who wanted so badly to play, was deaf - and getting very frustrated that she'd have to struggle to play, as she normally had to. So, I grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, and sat down next to her - writing down every bingo number called, until the game was over. Most of these women grew aggressive and irrational as their bingo numbers did not get called. They take this very seriously. Adiba was even telling us of times when it became physically violent or chairs were thrown around. I am thankful we did not have to witness something like that. It was sad to sit in the midst of everyone, looking around at their broken down facial expressions. Some of them had no emotion or expression to offer. Just a solemn face that seemed tired of struggling in this world just to try to make it another day.

After a long game of bingo, it was time to serve the main course, as well as dessert. Serving the salad, garlic bread, and lasagna seemed to go smoothly. But it was when dessert started to get served, that most of the people in there began to get unruly. We were handed huge industrial trays of cookies and walked around to pass them out to each person. The rule was that nobody gets more than one cookie, so that there would be enough to go around. From the moment I hit the floor and began handing them out, there were already people yelling at the top of their lungs because you weren't making it to their table first, or quick enough - in their opinion. There were also people screaming because they thought some were getting two cookies, when really, everyone was only receiving one. There were some people who would accept their cookie from me, but then wait for the others to come around and try to get more cookies from them - letting off as though they had not received theirs yet. It was a sad scene, but also grew more alarming when 5 of them ran up to me and reached for the cookies on the tray. I had to hold it up in the air and ask that they please wait their turn. We were also told not to serve people if they got in our faces or left their table. After the cookie incident, the staff walked the floor to calm everyone down and regain order in the room. I guess they are used to that happening. Sharon and I were not used to that scenario though... so it was tough.  After dessert was over, some people left the facility but many of them stayed put. 

I've got to be honest... every single one of these charities we have visited throughout this entire trip has impacted me greatly. But anything having to do with children, definitely hits the most sensitive of my nerves, so I knew that when I saw these children lingering around, it wasn't about to get easier - emotionally. There was an adorable little girl with chin length brown hair, bangs, and perfectly proportioned freckles on her rosy cheeks. She came up to me as Sharon and I were cleaning off all of the tables and dirty dishes and smiled up at me with a few of her baby teeth missing, as most 6 year olds typically have missing teeth and prepare for their "big kid teeth" ... She excitedly exclaimed to me, "I want to help you clean up! I'm bored!" I told her, "you don't have to clean, sweetie. Don't you want to color or play instead?" And she confidently stated, "No. I want to help you."

How could I argue that? She wanted to help. So... help me, she did. I let her pull the dish cart around with me and she seemed to love doing it. I am sure that her thrills and child-like excitement on a daily basis are scarce and infrequent. About 10 minutes into her following me around while I cleaned, we noticed that her left wrist was sliced up and freshly cut in about 3 different places. They were deep cuts too. It immediately alarmed me and I asked her what happened. She said she was okay and that she had just fallen at the Goodwill store earlier that day. But that did not make sense to me, as it looked like a cause of some other incident. I told her I wanted to put a band-aid on her. She told me she already had one on. I asked her to follow me to the first-aid area, and she did. I showed her that she did not -in fact- have a band-aid on and that I was going to fix her right up. She looked up at me and smiled as I pulled two band-aids out of the drawer. "Why are you putting two on me?" She asked.  And to that, I replied, "so that it gets better faster!" She smiled and examined my face as I leaned down to carefully bandage her up. As I bandaged her, she told me that I was so nice and that she loves coming to Rosie's Place. I was a hair away from sobbing in front of that little girl but knew I could not let her see me that way. I just looked at her, smiled, and hugged her. Then sent her on her way -back to her mother's table- bandaged and hopefully happier.

That whole incident with the little girl, did me in. We were already approaching the end of that volunteer experience. I was looking forward to being alone and letting it all out. I needed to cry. It's so hard not to. Anyone with compassion and a heart could just sense and feel the powerful levels of sadness radiating from everyone in that place. Even from the children...

The deaf woman that I helped with her bingo game was getting ready to leave. She came over to me to hug me goodbye. I spoke to her in the little sign language that I knew, and she blew me a kiss as she walked away. 

Now it was time to continue giving to Rosie's Place. Sharon and I removed our aprons, told Adiba we had a surprise for them and that we'd be right back. We ran out to the car, grabbed their check, and brought it in. As we rounded the corner to their office, Sharon and I were so emotional from having to hold back hours and hours of tears, that it had built up to be too much and past the point of holding it in. As soon as we entered Adiba's office -check in hand- tears started to flow. I did the best that I could to utter the words, "Thoughts Foudation wants to thank you all so much for everything you are doing here and would like to donate this $1,500 to your organization." Adiba and her co-worker were overjoyed. We know that money will go to such great use. I can only hope that it helps more than we can imagine but the truth of the matter is, there are so many hungry people in our country -not to mention all over the world- that it will take consistent acknowledgement and assistance for this epidemic to become an improved situation for most of these people. I want to keep giving back. Sharon and I have vowed to volunteer in our own city, at least a couple of times per month, once we get back home next week. This is just such an eye opener and it pains me to know that there are sweet, innocent children out there who do not know anything in their lives but a stuggle of this proportion. It's deafening and numbing to recognize the truths that exist in the world of the homeless, but every little bit helps. Every volunteer opportunity you can take part in, WILL make a difference in someone's life. This, I promise you.