A day to give Thanks

I had made up my mind a while ago to spend today giving, then giving thanks. I worked a 5 hour shift at the Salvation Army Red Badge Lodge, which is a homeless shelter in North Houston. We served about 8,000 from 10:00am to 1:00pm. There are over 500 volunteers from cooks, to waiters/waitresses, clean up, etc. Many families, kids included, volunteered. The "cooks" were Chef's from Houston area restaurants. We also had a player from the NFLs Houston Texans with us (Andre Davis - WR; from Schenectady). I was able to talk to him for a while about "back home". He's the one in the green shirt and white hat. The other guy is Col. Bill of the Salvation Army. He's a trip, and a blessing.











They have seating for about 500 at a time in the auditorium, and the cafeteria area was open as the workers were moving back and forth with the food. What a well organized event.

I got there early, so they asked me to oversee the pie table. Well, you know me, I couldn't just hand out pie. I sang, and asked every person that came for pie to sing for it. (If they didn't want to, they still got pie). It was a blast and the dessert area became a karaoke bar of sorts. One guy blew us away with his voice. He sang a Lou Rawls song (You'll never find...another love like mine...) so well that the place stopped and listened, then broke into applause. When my shift was over, it was hard to leave, but I left the stage in the very capable hands of Kelly.

Oh, and they fed me. The workers had an area to eat. After spending the short amount of time there serving, those of us eating felt like family (complete with spilled drinks).

The enormity of what we are doing here hit me the other day. We are giving the applicant more to be thankful for.

Make every day Thanksgiving.