I had the pleasure of accompanying photojournalist Susan Madden Lankford, her most recent book (Nov. 2009) is titled ‘downTown U.S.A., a personal journey with the Homeless.’ Pictures and life stories of the homeless in San Diego. You can see her work at www.humaneexposures.com

Susan, her husband Rob, daughters Polly and Samantha and myself hit the streets to pass out the 50 hat gifts that included a pair of warm gloves and socks donated by Kristin’s Kidz and some new warm blankets that had been donated to the Humane Exposures (Susan’s Organization)

It was an adventure and very rewarding to be able to hand out personally these gifts to people in need. Our first stop was to a little homeless man who Susan has known for years is is name is Phil. He was sleeping behind his cart full of all this belongings including a plastic milk crate that he has turned into a home for his pigeon, Daddy. Susan got out of the car and went to let him know we were there and that I had something special for him. I gave him a hand knitted hat that I had made that had a special card attached and a pair of gloves and socks. He was very grateful and and thanked and me saying, “God bless you.”

From there went went on driving around the downtown area looking for small pods of homeless people starting to set up their sleeping spots for the night with whatever blankets and belongings they had to brave the San Diego cold. It has been a cold windy day with bouts of rain making many seek shelter under some of the city street bridges. We pulled over to the street side to hand out some hats and blankets and I saw a little old man ….he must have been in his late seventy’s pulling a suit case he had no hat or gloves. I asked if he would like a warm hat and he smiled and said yes. I gave him and black and grey striped beanie hat with black gloves. He said, “Thank you honey and God bless you”. We went around the corner and handed out about five more hat gifts and blankets. As we returned back to the car…the little old man was passing us now only this time he had a hat and gloves on and he smiled , bowed his head and gave us a wave.

We came across on guy who had on only a shirt…his boxer shorts and socks. He had no blankets or coat. He said someone had stolen all his belongings and what he had on was all that he had. Susan gave him several blankets and told him to wrap one around his legs. He just kept thanking us for being there for him and he was so grateful for his new blankets and hat gift.

About 20 people got the hats I had hand knitted and Susan and Polly would tell people that I had made them….they all were grateful wished me a Merry Christmas. One lady I handed a hat that was knitted from bright purple and pink yarn and she just squealed with delight that she has something so pretty.

I could go on and describe almost each experience…especially the one where we came into a hot spot of homeless and had people almost rushing us for the blankets and hats.

It was an adventure and a very humbling experience. We plan to go out again in the next week with another 50 hats from Kristin’s Kidz and another 60 some blankets.

We would like to thank everyone who recently contributed to Kristin’s Kidz project for the homeless at our Los Angeles Training in Dec and at Sheri Sharman’s Holiday Women’s Empowerment night.

We look forward to being able to do many others things in Kristin Kleizo’s honor and memory in 2010.

Tracy J.