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Edgy Needs a Lot of Gifts Fast (split from Holiday Photos)

Edgy DC Dec 29 2008 12:01 PM

I'm down with peace on earth-goodwill towards men-giving to the needy-praying for peace everywhere-do you hear what I hear?-nothing but a child Christmas. I'm not so down with the spoiling of the kiddies. Here's my immediate problem. I'm throwing a Chirstmas dinner for 110 or so needy folks tomorrow evening and, aside from dinner, I haven't taken the time to rustle up gifts for them.

metsguyinmichigan Dec 29 2008 12:10 PM

="Edgy DC":2rc3p0eg]I'm down with peace on earth-goodwill towards men-giving to the needy-praying for peace everywhere-do you hear what I hear?-nothing but a child Christmas. I'm not so down with the spoiling of the kiddies. Here's my immediate problem. I'm throwing a Chirstmas dinner for 110 or so needy folks tomorrow evening and, aside from dinner, I haven't taken the time to rustle up gifts for them.[/quote:2rc3p0eg] That sounds like a wonderful event! If I were in that area, I would have offered to lend a hand. (Which is very easy for me to do, given that I'm on the other side of the time zone.) Best of luck to you. That's one of those things where you feel good when it's over -- not from the work and organizing, but the idea of helping others and knowing that you are still able to be the helper and not the one needing the help. Edgy DC Dec 29 2008 12:17 PM I fully expect that at the end of the evening it'll be something along the line of "Thanks for the lasagna, now where's the booty?" I've got nothing. I have about $12,000 in our coffers. I could cut out of work and try and find 110 $20 sweaters, and make up for it by doing a post-Christmas fundraising drive, but dropping $2,200 means I'm going to have to work it hard get that money back --- assuming I find anything with one day to go. I've just been overwhelmed with moving and dropped the ball here. metsguyinmichigan Dec 29 2008 12:30 PM Gas cards. It's universal, and much-needed. Not as sexy as opening a box with something in it, but every single one of those families will need it and use it. Good luck! Edgy DC Dec 29 2008 12:45 PM Nah, most of my peeps are living in shelters (or worse) and have no wheels. I was thinking of getting metrocards, but they're time-sensitive, so I don't want to buy them for a period in which folks aready have them. Gift cards to local stores have become problematic due to recent reports of addicts trading them for scores with local dealers. John Cougar Lunchbucket Dec 29 2008 12:48 PM Candlesticks are always nice. Oh, wait, wrong gift-giving ocassion. Buy a few local community garden plots, you know what they say about the teach-a-man-to fish thing. metirish Dec 29 2008 02:27 PM First it's a great thing that you are doing with the dinner , I have given your problem some thought and knowing that giving gift cards of any kind would not work because as you mentioned some would trade them for alcohol and drugs. How about giving books , I think that would be a good gift but time is not on your side. Edgy DC Dec 29 2008 02:53 PM I can work fast, and I can even make an announcement tonight along the lines of, "Tomorrow, we're giving you a really nice Christmas dinner, but we are still working on gathering gifts for youse, and will hook you up in a few days or weeks." I just have to come through. The problem with books is that half of my guys are primarily Spanish speaking. I work in a neighborhood dominated by Salvadorans. Many of the residents are refugees from the Salvadoran Civil war of 1980 to 1992. Most of them have worked hard to get their lives together, but a certain percentage never have recovered, and they're a big chunk my clients, slammed by alcoholism and mental illness. Apart from that, one of the first things the government did during the war is to shut down the schools to keep the populace in ignorance. So the illiteracy rate in both English and Spanish is high. I tell you though. I visited the hypothermia shelter last week before lights out and one of the guys was reading a Sue Grafton mystery, and it almost brought tears to my eyes. You work with guys by the dozens or the hundreds, and you can too easily forget the humanity of the individual. It's like the guy I saw have the siezure several weeks back. When he came to he was a disoriented mess with a terrified look on his face, and it was easy to just think of him as another maniac, especially since the soda he was drinking had splashed all over his shirt when he siezed up. But I had the groceries he had been carrying just moments before his brain short circuited. Soup, fruit, groceries, a magazine. Just moments before he had made simple decisions to get through a simple evening the way we all do. cooby Dec 31 2008 11:09 PM What did you give, Edgy? Edgy DC Jan 02 2009 07:29 AM I haven't --- at least not yet. Moving and trying to finish two chapters I'm writing --- in addition to the two jobs, is killing me enough. To be honest, I'm pretty grumpy with the crew. We've given them special meals several times in the last week or two, and when the food gets better --- unless you have sufficient quantity that they can all eat three large helpings and walk out with a packed takeout container --- the behavior tends to get worse. Not all of them mind you, but an unruly handful crying out that "I didn't get as much as that guy," can really be embarassing when they're whining in front of the generous angel who prepared something special. But I've got to get over the embarassment, because it's not about me. Ideas are still welcome. Had another guy with a siezure last night. Siezure disorders seem appear disproportionately among this set. I'm guessing that the tendency to sieze up can make you pretty hard to keep employed.