StephanieBailey

3/17/2009 Day one

Today was an eye opener for most but for me it was a way for me to give back to a community that had taken care of me when I was younger. My Mother and Father had always had a rough relationship and so when we needed to escape and had no where to go, we ended up at a shelter similar to the one we were at today. On my recent trip back to Baltimore, I passed by that shelter and saw that it was in complete ruins. It was rundown, empty, and there were homeless people perched on the marble stairs. I remember now, my hand print and name are some where in the building on one of the walls. It crushed me to think that I had no way of thanking anyone who had helped us out. When I heard that there was going to be a trip into Nashville that focused on homelessness I jumped at the chance to repay the “debt.”
I never really realized how that time had effected me until I sat in the National Rescue Mission’s cafeteria. I could remember that because of overpopulation, they had to set us up in cots in the cafeteria. I remembered not understanding why we couldn’t go home, why I couldn’t see my Dad and why we had to live with a bunch of strangers. Not only that but when my Mother was growing up she was often homeless too. She was a runaway by nature and so she bounced around between girl’s homes and shelters. Unlike what I experienced, I was surprised to find that the shelter provided so many different programs. I always remembered being bored because there was nothing to do and for some reason I wasn’t allowed to play with the other children. I wish now that we had had some sort of art program rather then just the colouring book and crayon set I was given to play with. I also think the point system is brilliant. I’m sure that if we had something like that in the shelters in Baltimore, people wouldn’t come and go so often. My mother always said that she didn’t like hand-outs and even though she was at a shelter she wanted to work for what we were given. So I think the point system eliminates some of the helpless feelings as well as provides the participants with a fair way to earn supplies.
One thing that bothered me was how dirty every things was. There were a few art pieces made by participants hanging around that were caked with dirt. I can understand that they just don’t have the time to go out and trim hedges or repaint bathrooms like they’d want to but a simple maintenance cleanup shouldn’t be a problem.