Every once in a while you come across a lens that truly touches you...makes you think. As it turns out Linda's lens touched one of our own in a deeply personal way. Becky Blanton is a Squidoo Lensmaster and she came across Linda's lens "Linda's Hats For The Homeless" today.
Here is her story...
They go into grimy hands, on unwashed heads, into dirty jeans and backpacks, on bald heads, old head, young heads. Hats for the homeless. Warm, knitted hats, every inch, every stitch touched by hands of someone who cared. What makes her do it? I asked myself. Why would someone care enough to send me, a stranger, a homeless stranger, a hat? It’s what I thought about when I opened a package from a woman I’d never met, almost three years ago. The box, sent to a post office box at a UPS store, contained a short note and a hat – in the blues and aqua’s I had requested.
I had responded to an offer of a free hat for the homeless online. I was living in my van in Denver, CO and the nights got cold quickly once I shut the engine down and I crawled into a makeshift bed in the back. My laptop and a local wifi provided me access to the internet – free entertainment during long, cold nights spent in deserted parking lots around Denver.
With my pets, a Rottweiler and a 20-pound Maine Coon cat, under the covers with me, I stayed mostly warm. But I needed a hat for moving around the van, and for sleeping. I was working full-time, but the $15 to $30 stores wanted for truly warm hats was not in my budget. Food, gas and van repairs topped the list of critical needs.
Then a post on a “van dwelling” group I belonged online popped up. “I knit hats for the homeless. Would you like one? What colors do you like? What size head do you have?” I emailed the woman back. “Blues and greens, but anything that’s warm will do! I have a large head, so not too small,” I wrote.
Within two weeks the hat had arrived – thick and cozy and sized just right. And it kept me warm. The night the temperatures dropped to 20 degrees below zero and my van tires froze to the pavement, my ears and head stayed warm. I had the luxury of poking my nose out for fresh air because of the hat, and I rarely took it off.
I can’t count the times I prayed and thanked God for this woman – the one who cared. I want her to know it made a difference. I’m out of the van and into an apartment and doing what I can to help others now too.
There’s no way to know where your blankets, your coats, your hats, your gifts to the homeless go. Some end up in pawn shops. Others are abandoned in alleys or boxes or the woods as they are discarded. Some are donated to thrift stores or exchanged for food, bartered for drink or drugs or sex. Some, like mine, merely keep a homeless person warm, then complete the journey and find their place on a hook or coat-rack in a house or apartment. I still wear mine – a reminder of how grateful I am that there are people who care and show it in such a special way. It doesn’t take a lot of money to change a life. A knit hat. A pair of gloves. A meal or a hot cup of coffee can make a bigger difference than you’ll ever know. Give a hat or pair of gloves to a homeless person this year. You never know where it will end up or the difference it will make.
-by Becky Blanton
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