| Sonya on San Pe... 的个人资料Sonya's space照片日志列表 |  工具  帮助 |
|
6月25日 Proof that the homeless are good peopleI got to work early yesterday because I was driving the IT tech from out of town around. I had just closed the car door when I sawrealised my cell phone was in the car and I would need it. I unlocked the door andreached in to get the phone then closed the door and headed the 100 feet up Crocker to the Village. This was before 9:00am. About 2:30 I get hungry for lunch - okay - Famished is much more like it. I can not decide : walk to store or drive for food? I chise the store. When I came back with food for mwe and Nick there was someone tapping on the glass from the hallway - he was holding my keys. I left my car keys in the DOOR LOCK of my Scion all day long. they were just hanging there and anyone could have used them to open the door and drive away, or at least plunder the car for money and goodies. Imstead, this man stood my my car for a while and other people saw him looking suspicious and asked him what he was doing. He showed them the keys still in the door. They asked for the keys and he refused and carried them to the front door of Lamp and turned them in. It turns out that the homeless man knew the car belonged to me and was worried that I had not come back but did not want to offend me by touching anything so he stood guard. When I was handed my keys, the member who gave them to me said "It is a good thing you socialize". I walked out to the front door and met the key-bringer and together we went to my car as he told me the story. I checked for my ATM and ID and then gave him the only thing I had with me - a Dr. Pepper. He refused the drink several times and looked embarrassed to be rewarded - but I pushed it on him becuase I could smell the beer he had been drinking. So WOW, my less than a year old car could have been stolen and it would have been my own fault, but for the honest and integrity that kept it safe while my keys were out in public from 9am to 3pm. 6月23日 Sometimes, Non-profit means not making ends meet...Subject: Urgent Appeal on Behalf of Lamp Community
As most of you probably know, I work for Lamp Community, an amazing nonprofit service organization located in downtown Los Angeles that works to permanently end homelessness, improve health, and build self-sufficiency among homeless men and women living with severe mental illness.
I’m writing to you today to ask for your help. We find ourselves at the end of the fiscal year with a shortfall in foundation, corporate, and private donations. It is imperative that we raise $150,000 between now and June 30 to maintain our current level of services. Funds raised will help homeless men and women get and maintain housing and provide essential health and supportive services for them to thrive.
I believe in Lamp Community and the important work we’re doing to help homeless people with a severe mental illness in Los Angeles, many of whom were homeless for as long as a decade before coming to Lamp Community.
Please help! I’m asking you to contribute any amount you can in the next two weeks to help ensure Lamp Community can continue uninterrupted service and to fill the gap between the end of the fiscal year and the time grant monies will be received.
There are three ways you can donate:
1) Donate online at: www.lampcommunity.org. There is a link of the homepage to donate, or you can click directly on this link to the secure donation web site: https://www.givedirect.org/give/givefrm.asp?Action=GC&CID=1283 All donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law.
2)
Send a personal check payable to:
3) Call Lamp Community’s Development Director, Joshua Schare, at 213-488-0879 with your credit card number and the amount you’d like to donate.
Thank you for considering this urgent appeal. I wouldn’t be sending you this request if I didn’t whole-heartedly believe in the work we do at Lamp Community – and if there wasn’t an urgent need for help. Please don’t wait, we need your help today!
Thank you.
P.S. Please forward this e-mail to any of your contacts who might be willing to help Lamp Community during this time. 6月18日 pot holes I remembered what it
was that I want to tell you every morning when I drive to work.  photo by opentopiathat we learn to swerve around them , reading the asphalt like Braille. We never honk when the car coming from the opposite direction is suddenly coming at us head on, because we know that 50 feet back we were on his side of the avenue going round another pot hole - and we know the on-coming car will move before we crash. 6月11日 illistration<img src="http://lovetrials.com/images/nameflame.gif"></img> what I drew last night when I gave up sleeping 6月9日 blog heavenIt is official, I ordered the
"I'm Blogging This" shirt from thinkgeek.com. So . . . How do I do this? hmmmm
Currently, I work on this during lunch, after work and on
the weekends as my personal project, but I hope that in next fiscal
year I will
be able to work it into my job description. I am crossing my fingers
for
continued support and greater things to come.  Gaby Wesley Samir  Renee6月5日 PicturesI admit it, I am a freak with the whole Camera Action thing. It is more or less surgically attached to my arm. I collect them - Cameras, phones, and power adaptors. I have plugs to stuff that I don't even own any more - bit that is another story. I love to take pictures of people becaus I think the human face is endlessly beautiful. Someday I hope to have a wall of portraits of old men. They are my favorite kind of face. I like to look and see if I can still find the 10 year old boy in their face. Around here, that is not so likely. The round fat filled cheeks have sunken, and it is more than the baby teeth that are missing. Crack, neglect, cigarettes and time have stolen teeth from the heads of the men around here, and the Tooth Fairy was not kind. Smoke, and age and the elements have weathered the skin into a leatherlike texture covered in speckles and grooves with dirt and residu sitting in the pock marks. The whites of once bright eyes are jaundiced and yellow. I suppose the description sounds kind of awful. It isn't though. The people here are as beautiful as any I have seen, and the glaze fades when you stop and talk to them. I take their pictures and bought myself a small photo printer and 4x6 paper ( I buy the paper at the 99 cent only store). About twice a week I wander out and snap a few shots; returning minutes later with glossy prints for them to keep. This is the first time in years that some of the people have held a photograph of them. They don't have cameras because it requires too much organisation and money to buy film, have it processed, and pay to pick it up. Also, what are they going to take pictures of that they want to remember and carry around in a yellow photograph sleeve? The corner where they sleep will have to senimental value until they have somewhere else to sleep. The faces around them are the same every day and don't need documetation, until one of them passes away and then the dead are talked about - there is no mantle to place a photograph on. This begs the question - why photograph them? I take pictures of them so they can see themselves the way I do. I do upclose- fill the frame portraits that cut most of the streets out, or show it as any other street in America. A few people have mailed the pictures to their families whi have not seen them in years as a way to say "I am all right and still alive, and hey, I am looking pretty good". I also drive through LA with the Camera as you might have noticed from the slideshows. Thise pictures I don't print out and give to them - people sleeping on the sidewalk, being harrassed by security guards, peeing inthe streets. I capture it because it is reality and it is not pretty. I want to show how inhumane the street life is so it will be real to the viewer and people will want to change it with action. I want people to see the residents of Skid Row as humans and their environment as inhumane. Leave me feedback and tell me what you think. I had a thought and then I forgotEveryday as I drive in to work I think . . . "REMEMBER to write about this in your blog." so here I am at the Laptop and Spaces is openand sure enough I don't know what I wanted to say and it IS important and fascinating ( atleast to me) but . . . alas I don't remember what it is. Sorry  6月3日 more of my LAAnne, my friend from work left yesterday. Her good-bye party was at Mexican Village in Silver Lake. Of course I got lost, but I think Los Angeles is a beautiful place so it was delightful. Here are some of the sights. One of the little things that tourist don;t know is that Ceasar Chavez turns into Sunset Blvd. "I'm ready for my close up . . . " *note to self, see that movie. |
|
|
