Via email from the Interactive Resource Center, Greensboro’s day center for people who are homeless, recently homeless or facing homelessness:
We start every morning here at the IRC with a meeting in the day room to go over the schedule for the day, answer questions, share information, and often to discuss the inspirational quotes that Jenny puts up on the whiteboard. The meeting facilitation rotates among the staff; Friday is my morning. I took the opportunity last Friday to tell the 60 or so people assembled in the day room about a wonderful $15,000 challenge grant we’ve been given to mark our third anniversary.
And then an amazing thing happened–a man put his hand up and said “How can I give a dollar?”, and he followed the question by walking across the room and handing me a dollar. A woman reached down, unzipped her purse and gave me a dollar. A man dug into his pocket and pulled out a single wadded up dollar and gave it to me. In the space of just a couple of minutes I had seven worn, crumpled dollar bills in my hand. Someone started clapping; someone else joined in and the whole room erupted in spontaneous applause. I don’t think I was the only one close to tears.
Matched by the challenge grant, those seven dollars are the equivalent of a sponsorship of an individual at the IRC for a full day and a half. If ever we needed evidence that what we do at the IRC is needed and appreciated it is that handful of dollars.
The challenge grant runs through March 31; any gift given since January 1 counts toward the total. You can make a gift online, or by mailing a donation to:
Interactive Resource Center
P.O. Box 20568
Greensboro, NC 27420Thanks to the benefactors in the day room we’ve only got $14,993 more to go!
Liz Seymour
Executive Director
