Aug 29, 2010 Volunteering at The Crossing

Last Thursday I went to the Denver Rescue Mission website and was ready to sign up for Sunday volunteering. To my surprise there was no listing for Sunday Am service at the Lawrence St. shelter. I guess they were already filled up. Kinda disappointed, i looked to see what else they had. The good thing was that on the DRM site there are many volunteering opportunities. The DRM is associated with The Crossing which is their long term rehabilitation and family housing location. This place is away from down town and a closer to my house just a bit. I want to keep doing this as often as possible, and you know how you skip doing something once and then you just tend to find other excuses not to go. So I signed up.

I really didn't know what The Crossing was about but i figured it was there helping people.
The night before I didn't wanna be late and I didn't really do anything the night before. I stayed home and played video games with some friends. Modern Warfare 2 is such a fun game and it gives me a simple release of energy. I always play with my friends whenever they are available. Mike, Eric, Lane, Johnon, Brian, and a few other people often get on to play. The game can suck time away just as much as World of Warcraft. So I ended up playing until about 12:30am. Knowing i had to get up at 4:30 I zipped to bed. Falling asleep almost immediately and poof, the alarm goes off i do not know what happened but i woke up around 4:50 so i had to hurry up and get dressed. Washed my face and took off.

Driving up to The Crossing I instantly noticed a bunch of differences between the Lawrence shelter. There was no security patrolling outside, and absolutely no homeless people hanging around. The Crossing is an old converted hotel that was purchased by the Denver Rescue Mission to rehabilitate and assist people in need. It is away from down town apparently as to keep those trying to rehabilitate themselves from the seduction of trouble downtown. It must work as there were no people hanging around the location.

The air was crisp and as I pulled up someone else did. I assumed that whoever was in the car also was volunteering. As I walked in I noticed that there was a set of rail road tracks across the street. Funny how i just noticed it as i had to pass over them to get to the place. The doors were automatic and there were a few men sitting around at some tables.

Not know who to talk to I walked up to them and asked who I need to speak to and this large guy with a nose ring says "That's me!" in a gruff voice. This guy had a very close to a shaved head but with some hair, and red shirt with flames. The shirt perfectly matched the rest of him. He seemed a bit rude but gave me the sign up sheet and told me to go to the kitchen. At the kitchen I met Alex who was the only one in the kitchen. He told me that I was to serve food today and had me help bring out a few trays of food.

Breakfast was the following: Country potatoes, grits, pancakes, fruit (cantaloupe), cereal, yogurt, and donuts. The breakfast seemed surprisingly very good and seemed like a lot of it. The potatoes were clearly drenched in butter and fried. the grits looked really dry like mashed potatoes, they didn't look appealing to me at all. The pancakes looked and smelled awesome. I saw Alex making the pancakes and he is really good at it. I was impressed with the breakfast so far.

Some other volunteers there were a family of three. A mother, father and son who was about 14 all were there because the father liked to help out. He had volunteered at the Denver Rescue Mission and they thought it was a good family thing to do. I think that is pretty awesome. There was also someone there named Matt, whom i thought at first was a volunteer, but I found out a bit later he was actually working at The Crossing to get his way into the program. Chris, Charles and Leta (the family) all seemed pretty nice. I served the hot food with Chris, while the father (Charles) was in the kitchen helping Alex. Leta was on yogurt and fruit.

As we got started I was psyching myself up for a fast paced slam bang of a food service. It didn't quite turn out that way. There were about 5 or so people hanging out right as we started and we served them. Me on potatoes and grits and Chris on Pancakes and Syrup. After a bit Alex brought out some chopped ham with potato. After the first five were served another person came in and got food, another and another. It was then i realized that people weren't all lined up like at the Lawrence Shelter. These people strolled in as they felt like it got coffee hung out. We weren't that busy so it didn't matter. In all i think we served about 60 people in a one and a half hour shift we would do that may in less then 30 min at the Lawrence shelter.

Another thing that I noticed was that we served food like a lunch counter (its what it was really) and it was so laid back. Do you want Potatoes? Sure.. How about grits. Eww.. no, but ill take an extra pancake. It's kinda funny to see people come in and get breakfast in their pajamas. This is when I realized that this place is really different then Lawrence shelter.

There was a family that came to eat with two little kids, and a husband and wife eating together. These people were here for the assisted housing program. While another guy came in that was working on getting a job and needed a sack lunch (those are provided here). The guy that greeted me when I arrived came through the line and he was much less gruff. He chatted small talk and said he was finishing a 12 hr shift. Seemed really nice.

I was feeling very tired and the slow pace was really making me want to move around. We sometimes went 5 min without someone coming to get food. That being said there was a little drama. The milk was bad so no cereal and no sugar for the grits (apparently grits are good with butter and sugar, I learned something new!). With no sugar or milk there was not creme or sugar for the coffee. Alex came out and said "It's what we got, you know we work on donations" So a few coffee drinkers grumbled and shuffled back to their seats. A bit later Alex walked out with a paper plate full of individual serving flavored creamer packets. Some of the people jumped on them, while others turned their noses up. It was actually pretty funny seeing some of these grown men angry about coffee.

After a while, Chris took a break and Matt came to help out while he was gone. I really got to know what The Crossing was in this time as Matt was very open. He said that he is whats called a "PC". What that means exactly I didn't know, but he did say that he is what they call people that haven't gotten into the actual program yet. They are people that can stay at The Crossing, but have to work six days a week until they get into the actual program. Matt said that that could be around 120 days because there is a wait list very long for people to get into the program. He said it may be a drag, but it's better then being on the street and he is actually trying to turn his life around.

So now what the program is actually about is that it is a long term rehabilitation and education program for people that have or had problems including drug and alcohol problems, homelessness, certain mental illnesses, and other things that have in some way or another let them slip through the cracks in society. This is a program designed to get them back on their feet and help them get into society. Matt says that you have like a 6-10 month program where you take classes and work and study with people kind of like school. Once you graduate the program gives you not only some money you can put in the bank but also a running car. This sounds like a pretty good deal for someone that has lost their way.

Matt says work is a drag but its so much better then where he was. He has had a lot of issues and had a falling out with his father that pushed him back to drinking. He said he got back on the program, but may be another 100 days til he gets into the actual program part. He also says some of the other people in the program are homeless people just trying to get out of the weather for the winter. He says it's common and that those people will leave around spring time. Kind of makes ya think if some people want to be homeless.

At about 7:15 we stopped serving and started bringing everything back to the kitchen. I helped wrap up some of the food to be served later. Got a whole lot of thanks, even from some of the diners. Was pretty nice but I was so tired I wanted to go home and sleep! Leaving the sun was up and shining brightly. What a beautiful new day and did a good deed.