SamanthaThomas

Samantha Thomas

Reflection 4

2-11-09

Today was extremely productive. I talked to many people today about the program at the Campus for Human Development. Most of which did not even want to speak about homelessness, but rather just a friend to share the little stories of their lives with. I spoke to a man last night named Jerry at our pizza/movie party who told me all about his family and how his life has been since he finally got his life back together at Campus. He is currently working for minimum wage at Campus, but on the 25th of this month, he has an interview at K-Mart. Even though I just met this man last night, I felt necessary to share in this tiny victory with him. He was one of the sweetest and most honest and interesting men I have ever met. He was completely and utterly open about all of his past experiences. He shared that he was an avid marathon runner until the last one when he tore up his knee. However, he still stayed in the spectrum by switching to biking. He told me of how he had biked in 150-mile bike marathons and how they were set up.

Another thing that had impacted me in a major way was when Wendy, our guide, began speaking about the new 5-story wing they were building onto their current building. We were all standing in the art classroom and there was this one man in particular who was especially affected by the news. His eyes widened, a smile began creeping upon his face, and his body suddenly sat upright from his artwork. After Wendy had finished speaking about the new building, he made the comment to our group that, “I have been more blessed in the past 4 months in this program than I had been my entire life. I love it here. There should be more programs like this. There just aren’t enough. Y’all should bring this back with y’all to West Virginia.” This stuck in my head because he seemed so passionate about it. It didn’t quite register until this point how much this program meant to these men. It was basically a godsend. I could finally see and feel the passion.