On Friday, January 28, while facing a forecast of heavy snow and wind, an intrepid group of eight from St. John’s Church traveled to New York City. We sought to offer support to people currently experiencing homelessness. We brought food, clothes, toiletries (including towels and blankets), and conversation. This would not have been possible without many, many people working behind the scenes.
Last September, Hurricane Ida flooded the lower level of St. John’s Church. Amongst the damaged and/or destroyed items were the vast majority of the goods we had been compiling for our next Midnight Run. Thankfully, we were able to take advantage of a clothing drive in the late fall held by Neighbors for Refugees–taking many of their leftovers to start our restocking of clothing. And we asked Midnight Run to help restock out toiletries (more difficult for us now that traveling is so diminished).
As the downstairs level, the ‘Undercroft,’ was rendered unusable, we had to find another location to sort and pack all the supplies, clothing, etc. that we take with us on each Run. When we realized that the Parish Hall was not available for us to use as our new staging area, Rev. Lisa offered the solution of using the church itself. Thankfully, this proved to work out very well.
Dacey Hall and Nancy Pierson spent the first day of the “sorting” week devising a strategy for organizing the many different clothing items (shirts, coats, shoes, etc.) throughout the church. We had colored signs on almost every pew, put up five tables in the back of the Church, and piled the shoes in the choir loft.
For the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, we were joyful to be able to encourage people to join us in the preparations (at separate times, properly masked, and distanced) throughout the week. We were thrilled to welcome volunteers Bonnie Kraner Clabby and her sons, Theo and Logan, Tommy and Connor Quenville, Lloyd and Aiden Chapin, and Linnet Tse.
We tried a new system using seven different colors of painters’ tape to sort by size the clothing and shoes–adding more work but making the actual delivery more accurate and efficient.
Carolyn Gallaher contributed enormously by sorting for several days. She also gathered together the clothing that we did not use, boxed it up, and made many deliveries to area organizations.
This past fall, Catharine Fleury made a connection between her daughter Alida’s Brownie troop and our Midnight Run team. At one Brownie meeting in December and in the troop leader’s driveway, the Brownies packed the 60 bags of toiletries. Having that job done was one fewer tasks for us. Thank you, Brownies!
Bonnie Kraner-Clabby, Meghan Marrero, Betsy Bradley, Ryan Gill, Tori Pough, Caroline Vance, Molly Broaddus, Lisa Young, and Carolyne Allen all contributed bagged lunches-including the ever-popular PB and J, turkey, meatloaf, and roast beef, we even had some veggie options. We began the Run with over eighty lunches and came home empty-handed. (A few “seconds” were given out in the final minutes before we packed up to come home. Those recipients thought they had won the lottery!)
After Valerie Guglielmo and Daniele Toselli prepared the coffee and hot chocolate and the caravan pulled away from the Church, they joined Carolyn and Nancy in the clean-up of the church. We needed to be sure the church looked ready for Sunday services before we left.
Throughout the week preceeding the Run, we watched news of the upcoming storm with trepidation. Finally we were told by Dale Williams (Director of Midnight Run.org) that it was safe to travel into NYC. He asked that we leave the city by midnight and designated three stops. Veterans Rev. Lisa and Kirk Mason, Frank and Melissa Pierson and Sebastian Gold were joined by first-timers Holly and Todd Hirshenson, and Matt Wrzesniewsky. Holly, our new Director of Children and Youth Ministries was eager come on the Run to learn how she might best involve the children of the St. John’s in future endeavors. Her husband, Todd, used his fluency in Spanish to be sure we could share conversation with as many people as possible.
At our scheduled stops, our group met with about 70 people. It was cold and flurries were the first sign of the snow to come. Many of those we met were appreciative that we were there despite the weather and offered many “God Bless Yous.”
The weather was the topic of conversation throughout the night, closely followed by politics. One man gave a long history of weather forecasting in NYC. One man poured his hot cocoa into the water bottle he just emptied so he could have a treat for breakfast. Another man swapped stories about San Antonio, TX with Rev. Lisa (“He knew more than I did”). One woman (of the 6 or 7 we met) was thrilled to get a tan coat with fur lining (“I haven’t felt so glamorous in a long time”). This woman reminded us of the important considerations that go into a limited choice of clothing–will it fit, is it practical, do I have the ability to carry it with me, is it me? Conversations often happened while waiting for a turn to choose clothing. At times it could be difficult to know which was the most meaningful – conversation or clothing? We tried to provide both!
We cannot begin to name the many members of our community who contributed everything we requested-pants, sweatshirts, hats, coats, shoes, socks, towels, blankets, and underwear…. We don’t usually count our items, but we do know that we went in with eight large tubs of shoes, all sorted into sizes, and came home with seven empty tubs. We had an unusually good collection of boots, sneakers, and winter shoes! Also, upon leaving Larchmont, we had a full large container of towels and washcloths. We gave them all away.
Our final thank-you goes to Dave and Robin Ingram; they taught most of us everything we know about how to do prepare for and execute a successful Midnight Run. Additionally, on this Run the Ingrams volunteered to retrieve and return the van we use. This involves two trips to the Midnight Run organization in Dobbs Ferry.
We are hoping this re-cap gives you a sense of the work that goes into each Midnight Run, as well as the generosity of our community, and the many hands that are needed to have a successful Run. Only a few of us end up with the privilege of being able to hand out the food and clothes, and talk to the people we meet. But this is a Parish-wide ministry and we could not do it with your support.
St John’s next Midnight Run will be in June. In the spring, we will be asking again for your donations. Please think of us when you see sales while doing your own shopping or while cleaning out a closet.
“Underwear and socks. I repeat… underwear and socks. A friendly reminder to donate the items ‘closest to you’ for upcoming Midnight Runs.” Words of wisdom from parishioner Matt Wrzesniewsky who manned the car with underwear and socks and ran short by the end of the night.