It is time once again for Bidwell Riverside Center’s Annual Pancake Breakfast!  Bidwell has been helping low income families on the south side of Des Moines for over 100 years!  This work is not possible without the support of people like you!  The pancake breakfast is one major way that Bidwell receives support to continue to Build Hope for those who need it most.

 The Pancake Breakfast will be held on Saturday, March 31st, 2012, from 8:00 AM until 12:00 PM. Grace United Methodist Church, at 3700 Cottage Grove, in Des Moines has graciously agreed to host the event again.  Tickets are $5.00 for adults, $3.00 for children ages 4-12 years, and children under 4 can eat free.  To purchase tickets call 515-244-6251 or you can pick them up at the door on the day of the event.

 As always there will be great food (pancakes, ham, eggs and beverages).  There will also be wonderful entertainment, baked goods, quilts for sale, a silent auction, and fun activities for the kids.  Most of all, it is a great time of fellowship with others who wish to help those in our community who are struggling to meet basic human needs in this time of economic crisis.

Please join us as we celebrate 119 years of service to the needy in Christ’s name and help us continue to Build Hope!

My first day at work, just a few short months ago, I stepped into the front offices at Bidwell and a specific piece of art caught my eye.  It is a piece by Brian Andreas, an Iowa born artist.  Andreas is known for his bright amorphous figures, and this particular print is of a person conquering a ferocious beast.  The quote on the print states, “Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me, but try waking up every morning & loving the world all over again.  That’s what takes a real hero.”  I have since commandeered the piece and it hangs near my desk where I often sit and ponder it (don’t worry; I have marked the back “Bidwell Riverside”…I am not gonna keep it,… just sayin’….but a copy would sure make a wonderful gift if my husband ever asks).

At first the artwork spoke to the social worker in me.  Taking on the work of social justice everyday is a bit like trying to conquer a dragon.  And, yes, it is necessary to wake up every day and try to do it again.  However, with time it has come to represent something very different to me.  Now, it represents the struggle our clients face each and everyday.  It must be extremely difficult to live in poverty in this society filled with abundance AND continue to love the world.  Actually, that is not difficult…it is near impossible.  We have a saying here at Bidwell:  being in poverty is a full-time job.  And sometimes the helping professions don’t really help.  Here is an example of how a typical phone call might go: 

Us:  “Thank you for calling Bidwell Riverside, how can I help you?”

Them:  “I am about to be evicted”

Us:  “I am sorry to hear that, what do you need?”

Them:  “I need $600.00.  I lost my job last month and I have not been able to find anything”

Us: “Well, we have expended all of our funds for rent assistance, have you tried general relief?”

Them:  “Ummm, no, what is that?”

We then proceed to send them to all of the possible places to try to puzzle together enough money so they won’t get evicted.  I estimate that in order to get enough money from the various agencies across the community it could take a family about a week, if they are lucky, to cover their rent.  The family then must start on a quest to cover their other living expenses including utilities, transportation, and non-food items such as toilet paper and soap.  It exhausts me to think about it.  This ongoing focus on getting basic needs met sucks up all of the adult’s time.  Most sources will only help a family with cash needs once per calendar year.  If only a family struggling with poverty could get their financial house in order in 30 days! 

Society asks, “why don’t they just get a job?”  Schools ask, “why don’t they spend more time reading to their children?”  Churches ask, “why don’t they come to Sunday services?” Neighbors ask “why don’t they clean their yards?”  My answer:  they are busy slaying dragons.

I’ll be honest; I do look at my children and also the most perfect grandchild ever, Atticus, differently than I do others. (Yes, that gorgeous child in the photo is our grandson.) However, I also often have the opportunity to see some of the 50+ children we serve here in our Child Development Center. And what do I see? I see endless potential. I see eyes filled with anticipation: anxious to learn, anxious to know that someone is interested in them and their future, anxious to soak up all of the opportunities we are willing to give them.

Before I go on, check out this video:

No, really, go ahead. I’ll wait………….

Marshalltown, Iowa recently began a process to ensure that all children are able to read at grade level by the end of third grade. This would be a monumental and exciting accomplishment. An article was published in that community’s local paper about the effort. Here is one of the comments that article received:
“Look, some kids are just born smarter and more motivated. The ones who don’t cut the mustard in school can cut my lawn. They’ll never do anything more important than that and that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Concentrate on the good ones and make servants out of the rest. “
Believe me folks; I don’t make this stuff up.

Children, along with being in general a lot of fun, are treasures. They hold our future. And that future is absolutely dependant on how we treat these treasures today. A brilliant man once said “…where your treasure is, your heart will be also.” As a society where is our treasure? Don’t we invest in things we really believe in? If we don’t believe in the massive potential of our children that might be evidenced by the way we treat them, the way we value them, the way we invest in them.

An interesting factoid: some states utilize 3rd grade reading rates as a way to project how many prison beds they will need in the future.

Again, I don’t make this stuff up.

I don’t know about you, but I would much rather invest in endless potential than prison beds.

I recently penned an article about waiting in line (which you can see here http://www.bidwellriverside.org/standing-in-line/ if you are really bored). It is, of course, about waiting in line and how much I hate it. Just when I thought no one else could possibly hate waiting as much as I do, I was confronted with our oldest daughter, Alex. On December 23rd. Alex arrived from Overland Park, Kansas with her significant other and our only grandchild, Atticus. As always, she arrived in a dizzying burst of energy. This was the first Christmas she (in her words) was able to bring “real” gifts. Box after box of artfully wrapped gifts appeared. And, with the glee of a child she chanted “open them, open them, open them!” Although only two days away, she could not wait until Christmas morning. Of course our other daughters were absolutely thrilled with the prospect of opening gifts early. Suddenly paper was tearing, tissue was flying and gleeful oohs and ahhs resounded. There was no waiting for Christmas at the Bacon home. I watched the spectacle with a sigh of resignation. Once the gift orgy was over, Alex turned to me and demanded “open them!”– referring to the unopened gifts at my feet. I shook my head. Alex, hands on hips, proclaimed “they are my presents to you so I get to decide when you open them.” If you ever have the chance to get to know our eldest you will understand why I complied.

The celebration of Christ’s birth represents the ending of a period of waiting. But what is it that we were waiting for? For some of us we were awaiting the end of the madness that the holidays can bring. Others were impatiently waiting to see if the ipad made its way under the tree. For many, it is waiting to see loved ones that are not seen often enough. But for Christians, the waiting should represent something more. Shouldn’t the world be different somehow? Ah, but maybe it is. Throughout the gospel Jesus points out that the Kingdom is at hand…within our reach. If this is true, the waiting is over. Its time for the doing.

I want to talk about indulgence.  And not the Catholic kind (google it).  Indulgence as in things that we don’t (or shouldn’t) typically have, but when we do it is AWESOME.  Unfortunately, I indulge too often, but there are still a few things I hold back on except at holiday time.  One of those indulgences are these Archway cookies called Bells and Stars.  They are simple little sugar cookies that when dipped in milk become astoundingly delicious.  Another holiday indulgence I enjoy is my famous butternut squash casserole.  It contains white sugar, brown sugar, and sweetened condensed milk.  It also contains some squash.  Along with indulging myself, I also love to spoil my family, when possible.  I can’t go into too much detail here, but let’s just say, my kids should be pretty happy this year….(no,Taylor, you are not getting a puppy). 

As I stumble through stores this season it appears to me that many others like to indulge themselves and their family as well.  Is there any doubt that we all love a bit of indulgence every now and then?   

 In my experience, low-income people are just like you and me.  They, more than us, could use a bit of indulgence this time of year.  All year long Bidwell’s staff works to try to meet the most basic of needs for families:  food, clothing, safe child care.   But this time of year is one of the few times that we get to help bring some indulgence into their lives.  Christmas Sharing has been a part of Bidwell’s history for over 50 years.  Each year hundreds of families are sponsored by individuals, churches, civic organizations, and businesses with the goal of bringing to families things that they could never get on their own and things that are not available at a food pantry.  The concept is this:  we gather the names and information about families at or below 150% of poverty (that is about $33,000 a year for a family of four).  We take this information and give it to someone that would like to “sponsor” that family’s Christmas.  The sponsor, at minimum, is supposed to obtain 2 toys or gifts for children 16 and younger as well as provide food for a Christmas dinner.  Most sponsors do much more and do indeed give indulgences.

In theory this should all work out.  But, we are dealing with human beings.  So, nothing is perfect.  The majority of our sponsorships go through without a hitch, but sometimes there are complications—a wrong or disconnected phone number, language barriers, sometimes sponsors forget –all things that should be expected  Yet, there are times I have been surprised by some issues with sponsors.  Most recently we got a message because a family did not receive any toys from their sponsor for their young children.  We have had other sponsorships come back because a family asked for something extravagant (an X-Box which is $129.00, but for a family with three kids, that could be cheaper than buying separate items for each).  We even had a specific request this year that a donation not go to anyone that was, in the giver’s words, “illegal”   Now, I can understand some people’s belief that we should be focused on basic needs and not on indulgences.  I respect that opinion.  However, why sponsor a family in that case?  Are people bothered by low-income people experiencing abundance though indulgences?  Are we concerned that certain people don’t deserve certain things?  I am very interested in your thoughts on this.  Please comment and we will have a discussion. 

Peace and indulgences to you this holiday season,

Anne

That is currently what we do in our distribution center.  When people arrive in need we help them.  At that moment it is not important how they got to where they are; we help them.  It doesn’t matter what car they drive, what size their television is, how many mistakes they have made in their life, or which of their choices I agree with.  We help them. It doesn’t matter where they came from or how they got here, we help them.  The following scripture guides much of our work at Bidwell:

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…”

One interesting thing I notice about that piece of scripture is how simple the needs presented are.  It does not say, “For I was hungry and you made sure that I deserved it and then you gave me food.”  It does not say “I was thirsty but because I have a decent car you decided I didn’t need a drink.”  It does not say “I was a stranger and after you determined that I had appropriate documents you welcomed me.”  It is simple and clear.  And Jesus said….

“‘I tell you with certainty, since you did it for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.”

Amen and Peace to you,

Anne Bacon

The Mayor of Whoville asks Horton to protect them from harm, which Horton happily agrees to do, proclaiming throughout the book that “even though you can’t see or hear them at all, a person’s a person, no matter how small.” In doing so he is ridiculed and forced into a cage by the other animals in the jungle for believing in something that they are unable to see or hear. Horton encourages the Whos to make themselves heard to the other animals. The Whos finally accomplish this by creating lots of noise so they are heard by the jungle folks. In the end it is a small Who named JoJo whose final addition to the volume creates enough sound for the Whos to be heard,   reinforcing the moral of the story: “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”

That sentiment is what drives us here at Bidwell.  In this big, noisy world sometimes it is hard to hear to voices of those that Jesus called “the least of these.”  In fact, at times it feels as if our clients have no voice at all.  And that is where the staff, volunteers, and donors of Bidwell Riverside come in.  We are here to help raise a ruckus so the rest of the world will hear.  So, here at Bidwell-ville we are going to work every day to give voice to the voiceless.  Won’t you join us?  You can help create the noise for the world to hear in a number of ways.  You can volunteer your time and talent and you can donate cash, clothes or household items.  But most of all, you can raise your voice to anyone who will listen that there are members of our community that are hurting and that need the support, because after all, “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”

Peace and Love,

Anne Bacon

Executive Director