It hit me when I realized that it was time to unplug Patchwork’s coffeemaker. It’s the commercial kind that is always at the ready with a perpetually heated water reservoir. But for now it doesn’t have to be ready to make coffee. It’s just wasting electricity. I cried. A week ago Thursday, this room had […]
We spend a lot of time talking about “sparks” in Patchwork’s Arts & Smarts Children’s Program, but are the kids really paying attention? In short, sparks are the things that excite and engage someone. Research from the Search Institute shows that when children know what their sparks are and when they have adults in their […]
There was a great party at Patchwork on Tuesday. We didn’t send invitations. We didn’t even know it would be happening ahead of time. But part way through the morning you could just feel it. At first glance, our main room was filled with a very motley crowd. People were drinking coffee and eating some […]
Last week, one boy in our Arts & Smarts Program found Jane Vickers and confided in her, “I found out that coming here helps with my stress.” “How so?” Jane asked. “Because sometimes school doesn’t go so well, but being here makes me happy,” he answered. The boy is a little rough around the edges. […]
You might read homelessness statistics for the Evansville area or you might see a news report about low income people struggling to make ends meet. It’s a different thing, however, to meet people on a daily basis and to learn that they are, in fact, homeless. It’s a different thing to carry on a conversation […]
It’s getting to be cold and flu season again. A man comes in with a hacking cough and feeling like there’s something in his lungs that he just can’t expel. He’s afraid he has pneumonia or maybe something even worse. Nurse John listens to the man’s lungs with a stethoscope. His lungs are clear; it’s […]
“Patchwork Central is one of the random helpers,” a case worker told me as he stopped by last winter to find out if we happened to have an extra-large coat for his homeless client. Coats, kitty litter, slippers, cremation urns, wheelchairs, antacid pills, laptop power cables. If someone is looking for any of this, it’s […]
A couple Fridays ago, the Arts & Smarts Junior Leaders (participants in grades 5-8) went on a grand shopping spree. However, they didn’t spend a single dollar on themselves. They had written a successful grant application to the Youth Resources Make a Difference program and had money to spend to stock the Christmas Store which […]
A man rolled into the Patchwork Bike Shop and asked Paul, a Bike Shop volunteer, to fix his bike’s front tire. It wasn’t an unusual request. Our Bike Shop volunteers see a lot of busted tires, bent rims, and leaky tubes. A lot can happen to a tire that’s rolling along for miles and miles, […]
It’s the first day of November. The air is crisp. The sun is shining through golden leaves everywhere around town. For many of us, it’s the time when we begin to look ahead to the holidays. Included among our holiday preparations is the search for just the right gift for friends and family. You can […]