First time vollunteering at the Denver Rescue Mission

For years I wanted to volunteer. Many many many years I thought about it, I created scenarios about how honorable and noble it would be to help people. How good it would make me feel to help; and every time I saw an advertisement or read a story about people helping I told myself. I am going to help. I am going to make a difference. The years passed and I keep those thoughts and dreams and feel better about myself. But I never did. I did donate clothing and food and money and even blood when I could, but I never donated what I felt was the most important, my time. I never volunteered just an hour maybe two to people in need. I may have helped at the Walk For Alzheimer's through work, but never "sacrificed" any real time just to do whatever needed to be done. I wanted to change that and I wanted to give back

I've been an admirer of The Denver Rescue Mission for years. Ever since I was still living at home with my parents I knew about it. I heard about the good they do and the stories that come from there have always filled me with good thoughts.

I used to listen to the hair metal band Poison. They had this song called "Something To Believe in." They have a line in the song that says "I drive by the homeless sleeping on a cold dark street, like bodies in an old bone grave. Underneath the broken old neon sign that used to read "Jesus Saves". Years later I drove by the Denver Rescue Mission and there was the same kind of beacon. Even in the middle of the day you can see the blue letters of the sign brightly against the wall.

Ever since my dad died 2 years ago last month I decided to change some things. I wanted to make him proud of me. Him being my dad, or maybe God, or maybe my heart. Little things, like getting back in shape, stopping smoking, find and be true to a person whom I can dedicate my life to, have kids and raise them right, give back to the community, work hard, see and talk to my sisters. While I have not done all of these as best I can, I have made some changes. While the biggest thing I have done is keep my father in my thoughts all the time. I have lost almost 20 lbs, working out regularly until i hurt my shoulder, I quit smoking all together recently. My condo is as organized as it has been in a long time.

So the next thing was to volunteer. I think there is a fear in everyone of doing something new. It isn't the work or the time itself, but the area, the people, the despair that brings these people to a place like the Rescue Mission. Most people are so insulated from this area that the last thing they want to do is go down there and spend any free time there. You have to admit it is a bit intimidating. There is trash all over down town, people lying in doorways and a lot of panhandling downtown. This was the challenge to accept that and go beyond that. To do some good.

The Denver Rescue Mission has recently made volunteering very easy. They have a website that takes 10 seconds to sign up to, and then gives you different options. Short term, Long Term, Court required sections show what is available in each. I chose Short term and then was surprised to see so many opportunities. I chose the following Sunday a shift from 5:30 to 7:30. Wow waking up early would be a chore. The night before i took it very easy and went to bed around 11pm. I woke up extra early 4:30am. Drove down town just a little uncertain where to park. I drove around the place once and chose the lot to the south of the building. Parking on Sundays is free if you go to a meter, however I didn't see any close. So I paid the 2 dollar fee. The moment I pulled up to the lot two people walked close and stared at me. I ignored them and in a few seconds they walked away. I got out and walked towards the building setting my alarm in the process. There were about 15 or so people huddled on the side walk, trash was littered in the gutters and it was 5:24 am... of course it was a tiny bit intimidating, but none of them blocked my way or were derogatory in any way.

Walking up to the building i rang the bell. An elderly man opened the door and I informed him that I was a volunteer. he greeted me kindly and walked me up the 10 or so steps to sign in. He then pointed me to the kitchen area and told me to ask for "Tervell." Walking around I was a bit confused as i didn't know who anyone was, there were about 15 people or so eating walking around. Later i found out they all worked or volunteered there. Tervell was eating and told me to wait a few minutes and asked me if I was hungry. I declined and took a seat next to him. I sat there unsure what to think but the smell from the kitchen was very good smelling.

Tervell showed me to a room off in the side with some metal tables. The room was basically empty of people, but a few strolled in from time to time. I was tasked with rolling forks in paper napkins. Very easy job and there were about 60 forks in the box. While i was doing this a three middle aged women came in and we greeted each other. Tervell put them to work on cleaning and preparing grapes, a lot of them! After about 10 minutes 4 high school girls came in and he put them on blue berries. When I was done with the forks, he had me put pastries from a box onto a tray. These were day old, but some still looked very tasty. I noticed later that i spread them out way to much and the other trays that were already done had about 3 times the amount of pastries then what i put on my tray. At about 6 am, he split us up into groups, I went with 2 of the high school girls into the kitchen while the others went to the dining area. I found out later the 4 girls were from Aurora too, small world. They decided on a whim to come volunteer and it was their first time too. There are some really good people in the world.

Our tasks were to be the assembly line for serving the hot food (the others did the cold food and drinks). The first girl named Megan took a tray from the stack and put a piece of hot french toast on the tray. The other girl Kristen scooped some diced potatoes onto the tray and added a piece of ham. My job was to pour syrup on the French toast and put the tray up on a shelf, where one of the others in the dining area would take it down and give it someone that needed it. This was very easy yet needed to be done. I think I could have done all three jobs myself, but would have admittedly been slower. We did this over and over and we had the counter basically full of trays as much as we could. We ran out of ham, so then it was replaced with a pile of sausages patties, when those were gone a big pan of what looked just like hamburger taco meat was given to us. A few times they brought over more potatoes and French toast. It went very smooth, in fact the lady taking down the trays, who had done this quite a bit, says we did the best she ever saw and she usually had to wait. That was pretty nice to hear.

Once everyone was fed it was about 7 am. We closed down the kitchen area and went out to help them in the dining area bussing tables and wiping them down. Every once in a while someone would pass by saying "thank you" this was from both people that worked there to people eating the food. Everyone seemed very grateful. Twice the line cook boss came up to use while we were serving and told us how thankful they were to have us there. You can tell he meant it.

Once the breakfast was over, Tervell took all of us on a tour of the place. The Denver Rescue Mission is over 100 years old and was built specifically to help homeless people. While they help 90% men, women are often helped with food and clothing. There are both English and Spanish speaking chaplains and services. Administration buildings, a hall where people can go to watch movies or perhaps listen to a sermon. Ya know, I do not know what denomination the sermons are given in. I don't think it matters, because it is given only to inspire hope, faith, and good will. Not once while we were there did someone push GOD on us, or try to convince us about one type of Faith. They were just happy to have us there to help.

There is a free clinic there that served over 40,000 people last year all from volunteered time from Dr's, nurses, dentists, and even a pedicurist. The manicurist/pedicurist comes in once a week to clean, and repair peoples nails all on her own free time. No matter what the person looks like or how dirty they are, they are cleaned up and helped out.

Upstairs there are 240 beds set up bunk bed style and there is a huge bathroom and showers. Anyone taking a bed must take a shower, that is a rule. Sounds like a good one to me. Each bed is stripped and cleaned every single day. They have ointments, and deodorant and soap there and even cut hair in one section.

90% of all the food, clothing, medicines and everything are donated. Tervell told us that they have never once ran out of food no matter how many people come in. This really made me feel good. There are some very generous people out there. He also said that the objective of the Denver Rescue Mission is not to just feed, or bed someone, but to help them change their lives and get them back on their feet. There are jobs offered there, and programs for people with jobs but no homes, and for pregnant women, or people that just need food. Some of these programs allow people to save up money or earn money to work towards finding a place in the future, as well as help people find jobs. Truly this is a place that does more then just feed the homeless.

Upon leaving I donated some bags of cloths that I had in my trunk for a few months. I hadn't gotten around to doing it. This shamed me at the same time of making me feel good. When they thanked me for the cloths it felt more real because i knew where it was going I guess.

Helping has always made me feel good, but today.. I don't want to be all dramatic as if it was a life changing experience. I mean all i did was wrap napkins and pure syrup on some French toast, but to the people that need it and the people that struggle to keep places like the Denver Rescue Mission moving forward maybe. Every single thank you was heartfelt, every single thing was positive there, nothing negative. It was all about helping people.. and maybe that is life changing.

I plan on doing this as much as I can and have already gotten my friend Adrienne to agree to do it with me. This is something you can always do no matter what time of year. I strongly suggest it to anyone thinking of doing it. Heck I will go with you!

If everyone gave one hour a week, or a month... no one would be hungry.