Exceeding Expectations

Last month I reached out to a few of my friends and family members to help me with a service initiative. Part of my long-term goals is to open a non-profit that provides various services for the personal and community development of inner-city youth and adults. Though it will take much more time and effort to establish this, since I have started my own business (Power of the Pen Communication Consulting) a good friend of mine planted a seed in my head to move forward with service efforts anyway. The result of this seed once sprouted, was a sock drive called Operation Warm Feet. The people I reached out to became the donation leaders. They collected money donations as well as new and gently used socks of all sizes and colors. These socks were to be turned donated to a local community organization or homeless shelter.

The purpose was to provide a much needed article of clothing to homeless individuals in order to help keep them warm during this winter season. So...for about 4 weeks, the donation leaders and myself collected money and socks. The result was far more than I ever could have imagined. Not only did they take donations from people locally in the DFW area, they also reached out (via telephone and email) to other family members and friends. What resulted was a chain reaction in which people were open and willing to donate as well as spread the word to get other donations. My mother and I then took all of the money we received in donations, and used it to purchase more socks and some throw blankets. These items were then donated to not one, not two, but three different homeless shelters that provide clothing and food to those they are not able to house within their facilities....

Although it has been a week since this initiative ended, I still cannot help but reflect on how this all played out. I am so incredibly thankful to everyone who helped in some way. Whether people donated socks, money, spread the word, did one, both, or all and even those who simply supported and motivated me just to attempt this, it was all a big help....Now, moving beyond myself I am so excited to know that such a small initiative was able to go a longer way than originally expected.

In this country, we have a major homeless epidemic, and as our economy has worsened, the population of homeless individuals has risen. This effort may not solve the issue (which of course it will not), but it can at least help to provide some sort of support to those who remain on the streets, while we continue to  help with actually providing permanent residences for them. My heart is full of faith and my mind full of motivation to continue to take the necessary small steps to make large scale change. A friend of mine once said, "Devan, it's a life of service..." and he was right. It is exactly that; my life is meant to be one of service, and though it may not be easy, I am certain that exceeded expectations, short term wins and long term change will continue to keep me going. To those of you who supported in ANY way, I sincerely thank you.