With the cost of living continuing to go up, the poverty in Stockton, CA is increasing rapidly. We made a trip out to one of the homeless encampments to talk to it's residents, hear their stories and ask them what their needs are. We met a lovely couple, named Maria and Mason, as well as maria's two boys. They were kind enough to show us around and introduce us to many other residents of this homeless encampment. We had the opportunity to ask many of the residents what some of their needs are. After some good chats, we headed home with a list of items that we knew we wanted to get for our new friends.
On Saturday, July 15th 2017, teams of teen volunteers (our kids and their friends) joined Make-A-Dent and went door-to-door collecting donations, based on the requests we received. The team that gathered the most donations won super soaker water guns! We received some cash donations as well, which we used to purchase the items that we could not gather door-to-door.
On Sunday, July 30th 2017, we loaded up the van with our teens and all of the requested items, along with some other blankets and sleeping bags. We headed out to Stockton to deliver the items.
When we arrived, we searched for those who had made requests, but couldn't find any of them. However, we went by Maria's tent and found her friend, Felipa watching her few belongings while Maria and her children attended a funeral.
Felipa said that we could leave the items there and that Mason and Maria could distribute them when they return. After labeling each item and chatting with Felipa for a bit, we said goodbye. We were a little sad that we couldn't see any of those who had made requests but were grateful that Felipa was there to help us.
From the moment we met Felipa, we felt a connection with her and she was so kind to us. She informed us that she had just recently arrived at the homeless encampment. It was 100 degrees outside and she was trying her best to stay cool with a wet towel around her neck as she was fighting off flies from getting into their drinking water.
As we left tent city, we felt that we wanted to do something nice for Felipa. So we stopped at a gas station and picked up a large mango slushie for her. We brought it back to her and she was so thankful.
As we got back into our van and began to drive away, we noticed Maria and her two children returning from the funeral. We were able to talk to her and ask how they are doing. Overall, they seem to be doing well. She asked us to pray for Mason as he is going through a tough time. We weren't able to see her and her kids receive their items but she was very appreciative. We decided not to record this moment. Sometimes it is better to just love people with no video camera on. We did get some footage from this visit and our previous visit and are working on editing it all. We will share it with you as soon as we finish it. These pics are a just a few still frames from the footage yesterday.
Thank you to everyone who donated items and/or money for our Tent City project and for helping to make a small dent in a big world of need.
