Rents
are extremely expensive in San Francisco, where affordable housing
is limited. As a result, the city has one of the highest homeless
rates in the United States. In an effort to make the lives of the
less fortunate brighter during the recent holiday season, fellow initiates
from the San Francisco Center pooled their time, money, and resources
to conduct a homeless relief project.
The activity
was focused on a specific subset of the city's transient population
-- those who are forced to sleep on the streets due to the shortage
of homeless shelters.
Fellow
initiates purchased enough materials to keep the homeless warm, and
on the nights of December 2 and 16, scoured the city from 11:00 PM
to 3:00 AM in search of homeless people. Each one received a brand
new sleeping bag, a warm sweater, gloves, socks, a warm box of food,
and a copy of Master's News magazine to read. It felt good to see
expressions of surprise, happiness, and joy on the faces of our less
fortunate brothers and sisters as they received their gifts.
Being
used to times of joy, merriment, and prosperity, it is very easy for
us to forget how fortunate we really are. We are so accustomed to
having the simple necessities of life that we often take them for
granted. Helping our needy brothers and sisters reminds us that there
is much to be grateful for.
