Sometime in the Winter of 2000 there was a mission in the Elliot Park neighborhood on the edge of downtown Minneapolis that served Sunday evening dinner to the homeless. One night I had volunteered to help provide some fellowship to the diners and soon myself sitting across the table from a likeable young man in a blue windbreaker named Alex.
After asking a series questions I quickly discovered Alex camped outside at night down by the river, worked day labor jobs, had been to prison for burglary but was now clean and sober and without asking, prowdly pulled out his Chrysalis certificate to evidence of his accomplishment.
This got me wondering where did Alex grow up? "Maplewood" Where in Maplewood? "By Wakefield Lake" Where did you go to school? "North St. Paul" Really? What's your last name? "White" Oh my, now my brain is racing! Alex do you have an older brother named Roland? "Yeah...he dead."
I told Alex that I was sorry about his brother and that I was in his same class at NSP and we were on the track team together. Alex quietly said "yeah i ran track too ...hurdles". "Still like working out but don't have anywhere to do that."
Long conversation pause as I try to process what I've just learned. Then some imaginary bell tolls inside my head when I ask Alex if he'd like to be my guest sometime at the downtown YMCA to work out. Alex's face lit up. Okay how about noon tomorrow?
The next day I'm waiting outside the Y thinking, do you really believe this homeless guy is going to show when I see someone in a blue windbreaker and backpack coming around the corner...it's Alex. We give each other the same surprised look. Into the Y we go and get him set up with a month long guest pass so he can workout whenever and shower daily-very much needed. I observe Alex running around the indoor track like a like colt getting his legs and then striding freely and then sprinting and I think wow he's really enjoying this.
Super long story cut short: over the course of the next year, through significant efforts by many of us that got to know Alex and wanted to help him, he gets a job at the Y, we rent an apartment near his work (which is nearly impossible with a criminal record and no rental or credit history) friends and family help contribute items to furnish the place and voila, mission impossible is accomplished...we've taken one guy off the streets.
I wish I could end the story there but sadly no. Alex does great work at the Y until one day he was bullied by another more senior employee but Alex didn't have the social skills or smarts to know how to handle the situation correctly. Instead they get into a fight and Alex loses his job. He resorts to his flight instincts and runs away doesn't tell any one including me. Later I find out what and try connect with Alex to help but he wants nothing to do with anyone and falls back into the cracks in society.
For many years I look for Alex out on the streets whenever I'm downtown but to no avail. Haven't thought much about it lately until the reunion website went live and I saw Roland's name in memory.
Who are the homeless? Who knows, they could be right amongst us without even knowing it.
Bob Malmgren
Sometime in the Winter of 2000 there was a mission in the Elliot Park neighborhood on the edge of downtown Minneapolis that served Sunday evening dinner to the homeless. One night I had volunteered to help provide some fellowship to the diners and soon myself sitting across the table from a likeable young man in a blue windbreaker named Alex.
After asking a series questions I quickly discovered Alex camped outside at night down by the river, worked day labor jobs, had been to prison for burglary but was now clean and sober and without asking, prowdly pulled out his Chrysalis certificate to evidence of his accomplishment.
This got me wondering where did Alex grow up? "Maplewood" Where in Maplewood? "By Wakefield Lake" Where did you go to school? "North St. Paul" Really? What's your last name? "White" Oh my, now my brain is racing! Alex do you have an older brother named Roland? "Yeah...he dead."
I told Alex that I was sorry about his brother and that I was in his same class at NSP and we were on the track team together. Alex quietly said "yeah i ran track too ...hurdles". "Still like working out but don't have anywhere to do that."
Long conversation pause as I try to process what I've just learned. Then some imaginary bell tolls inside my head when I ask Alex if he'd like to be my guest sometime at the downtown YMCA to work out. Alex's face lit up. Okay how about noon tomorrow?
The next day I'm waiting outside the Y thinking, do you really believe this homeless guy is going to show when I see someone in a blue windbreaker and backpack coming around the corner...it's Alex. We give each other the same surprised look. Into the Y we go and get him set up with a month long guest pass so he can workout whenever and shower daily-very much needed. I observe Alex running around the indoor track like a like colt getting his legs and then striding freely and then sprinting and I think wow he's really enjoying this.
Super long story cut short: over the course of the next year, through significant efforts by many of us that got to know Alex and wanted to help him, he gets a job at the Y, we rent an apartment near his work (which is nearly impossible with a criminal record and no rental or credit history) friends and family help contribute items to furnish the place and voila, mission impossible is accomplished...we've taken one guy off the streets.
I wish I could end the story there but sadly no. Alex does great work at the Y until one day he was bullied by another more senior employee but Alex didn't have the social skills or smarts to know how to handle the situation correctly. Instead they get into a fight and Alex loses his job. He resorts to his flight instincts and runs away doesn't tell any one including me. Later I find out what and try connect with Alex to help but he wants nothing to do with anyone and falls back into the cracks in society.
For many years I look for Alex out on the streets whenever I'm downtown but to no avail. Haven't thought much about it lately until the reunion website went live and I saw Roland's name in memory.
Who are the homeless? Who knows, they could be right amongst us without even knowing it.