Today my eleven year old daughter and I walked and drove around the city of Detroit looking for homeless people to give sleeping bags and sack lunches to. It was a very moving and eye opening experience. I would like to say that it was my idea, but actually this is the third year that my friend Ryan and his wife, Tara have been doing this. They raise money through friends and family and buy the bags and give them directly to the homeless. This year we gave out 58 new Coleman sleeping bags all around the city.
Today at 1 PM, 9 of us met in a Meijer parking lot in suburban Detroit. As we drove down Woodward Avenue, there were 2 people puhing shopping carts with all of their possessions in them. We stopped in the center turn lane and ran over a couple of bags and lunches to them. By two o'clock, we were parked at Hart Plaza, downtown on the Detroit River. We grabbed a few bags and lunches and headed down into the cement tunnels underneath. There were only two people were down there, but they were happy to receive the bags and food. The first man was barely coherent, completely beaten down. He was curled up underneath a cement overhang, wrapped in a ratty, stained blanket. He took 2 bag lunches, and then directed us to another man a little further down.
Next, we moved down the River towards Cobo Hall. As we were walking alongside the building, under a bridge, there appeared to be a pile of blankets next to a wheelchair. Nothing was moving, even after we called out. I set a sleeping bag down next to the chair and said that we'd leave it, since whoever owned the chair and blankets would surely come back. Just then the blankets moved. My daughter nearly jumped out of her skin. The man sat up, probably thinking someone was trying to steal his possessions. He was sleeping on the cold cement on top of a thin piece of cardboard. We offered him the sleeping bag, and at that point, we realized he had no legs. We helped him get the bag out of the box and unzipped so he could climb into it. He had tears in his eyes as he asked what church we were from. We said no church, just us.
After that, we drove around handing out more bags. The last one we found was a woman who said she had three gand children that were homeless who had no blankets. We gave out 18 sleeping bags in about 2 1/2 hours. Hopefully we made somebody's life a little more comfortable. All in all, I thought I got the better end of the deal. I had a wonderful bonding experience with my lovely daughter, and I got to go home to a nice warm house afterwards.
It was such a different experience from my normal Detroit experience. Normally, we'll drive down from the suburbs to see a show or a game, and you almost tune out the homeless. This time we were actively seeking them out. It gives a whole different perspective on the city. Detroit has so much potential. It could really be a wonderful city. We have the riverfront, the new stadiums, the casinos (although I don't think that casinos are a great solution to urban blight), and lots of the normal nooks and crannies that you find in any urban area. I don't know if it ever will live up to it's potential. It seems to be dying a slow and agonizing death. Most people think about an urban wasteland when they think of Detroit, and maybe they are right. But today, I ran around the streets and alleys with my 11 year old daughter trying to make a difference in somebody's life, and at no time did we feel like we were in danger. We talked to a lot of nice, interesting people, and had an excellent day.