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 […]
Last Tuesday, a man came up to the window where we serve coffee and snacks. Gail, the day’s Hospitality Hostess, noticed that he was feeling emotional. The man told Gail, “You don’t realize how different you are from other places. Other people say Patchwork just gives you coffee and a donut, not a real […]
It’s a typical morning at Patchwork. Dee hands out shower supplies and socks in the main office, looking to see if she can meet special requests and joking with everyone. “Dee, I’ve missed you!” one woman exclaims, happy to have Dee’s humor brighten her day. “You’re weird like me. It makes me feel normal when […]
Patchwork Central’s Arts & Smarts program is going strong! Since it began a few weeks ago, many kids have spent afternoons in the tutoring room getting help with their homework and building academic skills. A wonderful group of Junior Leaders have been learning how to be good role models for younger children and how to […]
Patchwork Central’s after school Arts & Smarts program kicked off on Tuesday, and we’re anticipating a great year. Already students in grades K-5 have gotten started in tutoring, working one-on-one with adult and high school tutors to keep caught up in school this year. The tutors do not only help the students with homework, they […]
The man is a little gruff and he looks like he has had a wide range of experiences in his life. One day, he comes into Patchwork’s main office and tells Shawn and me, “The Doc paid my health insurance bill for the rest of the year. I just about cried.” Underneath the gruffness, we […]