My husband and I along with others that volunteer with us work a homeless ministry, Homeless Advocates of Texas (HAT) and we go to the downtown Dallas shelter.We also pull up in the parking lot across from the shelter and pop our trunk and men / ladies come over to the car and we hand out clothing, coats, blankets, toiletries and more. All of the items come from people like you.We have luncheons at off site locations at the churches that work with us. We have van drivers that will go to the area shelters or nearby locations where they normally congregate and we will feed up to 300or as many that we can depending on the amount of food we have prepared. Sometimes it may be more and at times a lot less.We also have annual health fairs at Paul Quinn College, a local college in the southern area of Dallas once a year. The event is for the college students that may not have health insurance, the community and all who will come by and take advantage of the many services that are offered. A few vendors that come out: Dallas Police Deparatment for fingerprinting the youth & literature on fraud alerts for the elderly, a local domestic abuse center, Methodist Hospital for mammograms which are free through a grant for those who qualify and low cost for others, Dallas County for immunization shots, Mosaic for AIDS / HIV testing, a local dentist, Girls, Inc. and many others.Last summer we teamed up with our local AmeriGroup to provide back packs for students and we collected school supplies for over 150 students with the help of the City of Seagoville. We were able to provide the elementary students enough to start the year off with and also providing the high school students a few items. This year we aim at having a back 2 school rally, making it a full day's event. Anyone in the Dallas and surrounding areas of Texas that would like to work with us on this event may contact us at HomelessAdvocatesofTexas@yahoo.com. We will start working on the rally in February to get a jump start.My plans are to eventually open a facility to house men, ladies and families to assist with any problem they may have, give counseling, have computer training facilites (on site) and a full service cafeteria along with having jobs for the people on site as well and so much more.You can read my story if you go to www.PurposeDriven.com / Dallas woman finds her purpose (for Purpose Driven Life by Pastor Rick Warren).There is another story you can find on me regarding me and the homeless with The Dallas Morning News in Dallas, Texas. You can place my name in your web browser and find this story.It has been a journey worth traveling. I am enjoying the ride and talking with all of the interesting people.You would be amazed at the stories you hear of how & why.It's a new year, let's all volunteer somewhere no matter what part of the world you may be in.Helping others even when you don't have anything but time to offer will help you in return.Much luv! Gina
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