2nd YSOP DC Trip

Hello Friends! I just recently caught up on my sleep from the midnight train ride and figured that I would share my experience in DC with you. All in all, I had a really good time and learned a lot about homeless people and their situations. The first day of service I went to a food bank called Bread in the City and made bags of canned food. By the end of the day, we had probably made about 400 bags of food and we had a good time doing it. We made an assembly line so we were super efficient. This was definately my favorite day because it really felt like we were making a difference. That night we had two guest speakers, who were both homeless. I really enjoyed hearing from them, and I would probably say that it was during this speach that my views of homeless people changed the most. The next day I went to Rachel's Women Center, which is a shelter for women. We bagged clothes to go to a thrift shop, and then we painted a closet. That night, we made, served, and then ate dinner with about 45 homeless people back at the YSOP church. I met a man named Shady, and a few days later when I was at another site I saw him and he remembered my name! Very exciting. The next day I worked with a program called Elder Buddies and we helped clean out a woman's apt so that she wouldn't get evicted. She was a hoarder and had unopened mail from the 1980's. After that, we went to Thrive DC and attempted to help them put together a desk. The final day we went back to Thrive DC and worked in the kitchen. I'm glad that I was able to go on this service trip because I learned a lot and feel like I really made a difference!

Love, Becca B.