by robin on Tuesday, July 7th, 2009, Filed Under The Latest | View Comments
What’s this!? Snow in July!? In Los Angeles!? This Wednesday, July 15th, Christmas is coming to Union Rescue Mission. It’ll be a chilly, wet, and fun summer day with lots of snow, snowball fights, snow cones, toys for the kids, a tropical Santa, a dunk tank and more! And guess who’s being dunked? …THE GRINCH!
What a joyful day for the kids staying at Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens Family Center–most of whom have never even seen snow!
Union Rescue Mission thanks Subway for sponsoring this event and for sharing the always needed Christmas cheer!
by robin on Thursday, July 2nd, 2009, Filed Under General, The Latest | View Comments
For 5 straight days Crossroads Community Church of Santa Clarita blessed Union Rescue Mission and Hope Gardens kids with a Vacation Bible School. Each day 15 volunteers led the children in all kinds of activities to learn about God, including worship songs, crafts, story time, and games.
With so much summertime fun the kids were sad to see our Crossroads partners leave…and so were their parents!
Thank you, Crossroads, for blessing our children and bringing light to their lives!
by monica on Wednesday, July 1st, 2009, Filed Under Rev Andy's Blog | View Comments
My plan for last Saturday was to meet one of my Facebook Friends and her group who had offered to bring a tremendous dinner to our 5th floor families and men living in our 5th floor transitional housing. They were coming to serve the dinner on our fantastic URM rooftop with a 360 degree view of all of LA County and beyond.
At 3:30, I arrived to set-up, only to be alerted that a gentleman was having a violent seizure in our guest area. I rushed in to assist and joined my long time friend, former All-American Football player, Gene — formerly homeless, now new employee. Gene and I worked together to place the man on his side, put his head on a pillow, and peal his arms back so that he could not hurt himself. We held on tight for more than 10 minutes waiting for the LA Fire Medics to arrive.
When the Fire Medics arrived, they assumed I was simply Security because I had dressed in blue jeans and a black URM golf shirt. Their Captain said, “What really happened here?” I explained that this man was having seizures for over 10 minutes, and that the last one was longer than 5 minutes. The Captain became very rude and said, “Seizures don’t last that long!” I repeated what happened and informed him that I was the CEO of URM and that this is exactly what happened. He said one more rude thing and as he was leaving I learned from our Security team and staff that this is his approach each time he makes a call here. I made a call to his Chief to request that this gentlemen get some customer service training.
Around 4:30, I headed to the roof and greeted the families and children. I tried to wear out the youngsters until the food arrived…that did not work, they wore me out thanks to my little friends, Tyron and Tyrell, two of the cutest, kindest, but most energetic guys you could ever meet.
My Facebook friend, Karen a professional photographer and avid chef at home, showed up promptly at 5:00 with her family, friends, and a large dinner bag for each person from our 5th floor family wing, men’s transitional wing, and staff — 119 bags in all! Karen had seen the movie “The Soloist” and felt compelled to feed a superb meal to people struggling with homelessness. I tried connecting her to organizations in her hometown of Burbank for opportunities to feed people, but no one could make it possible. So, I told Karen that either she could come to URM and serve the meal to our families, or I would meet her and we’d feed people right on the streets of Burbank. She got a chuckle out of that, but decided to bring a feast of pulled pork sandwiches, potato salad, tossed salad, and chocolate cake, all made from scratch, and provide our families with a wonderful meal and experience. I wish you could have seen the little ones dragging their dinner bags filled with treats to a shady corner on the roof as we enjoyed a beautiful sunshine and loved filled California afternoon!
I sat with a young man, as he ate seconds of cake and tried to hide it from his young expectant wife. He was a delightful young guy working hard to overcome homelessness while expecting their first precious child.
At 6:10 P.M. one of our case managers arrived to let me know that a young mom and 6 children under the age of 5 needed a lift to the bus station along with all of their belongings to catch a 6:15 P.M. bus. We quickly loaded up in my van and raced to the bus station. I sent the young mom in to get her tickets while I entertained her precious little ones. Her two year old beauty hugged me and stared into my eyes and I wished that I could take them all home, but they were heading home to family in Colorado. The mom returned from inside the station empty handed. They had missed the first bus, and she needed $100.00 more for the new ticket. The family also needed food for the trip so I went to the ATM and acquired $160.00 and handed it to the very thankful mom. I asked the children to behave and stick close to mom during the trip. They all yelled, “Thank you, Andy!” as I prayerfully left them at the bus station and headed for home at the end of a “typical Saturday” at Union Rescue Mission.
