Holidays are coming

We are in another great November. No snow on the ground yet. I hope to see everyone at the Christmas City of the North Parade this Friday. The day after, I will be at the Duluth Hillside Food Share distribution day at the Central Hillside Community Center. Food Share is a food buying club that gives people great deals on their food orders. In December we have an awesome Christmas package for $25.00. For more info visit www.sharewi.org. In March 2009, I was in Superior for their Project Homeless Connect. I was talking to a bunch of service providers, and there was Karen Arthur who coordinates SHARE. A few people mentioned that there should be a Duluth site for SHARE and three months later, we made it happen. Karen is an amazing lady who coordinates several SHARE sites in the Northland. I would tell you the exact number, but by then she would have added 2 or 3 more.

With the holidays coming, so come the bells of the Salvation Army. It is a great time to ring bells. I have been at a lot of different stores doing so, over the years. If you have a group and want a way to help out, call your local Salvation Army. I think it is always great to see kids involved. Knowledge is power, but knowledge about the problems within society is so much more.

On Saturday, November 14th, I had an awesome DuSu experience. I started at the Federal Building, at the health care rally. Thank you to the organizers and speakers. One highlight was hearing from City Councilor-elect Kerry Gauthier. Kerry is a great speaker and will be a fantastic councilor.

After the rally, I went with my Twin Ports Action Coalition group to Superior for the "A night without a home" sleepout and fundraiser. This was a great day. We had a lot of donations come in, including $105 we raised going around to the bars in town. Superior Mayor Dave Ross was there, and in a cool moment, someone with a problem got to talk to the mayor about it face-to-face. Linking elected officials and ordinary people was never so easy. For that night, we were truly without a home.

I would like to end this blog with a thank-you. I want to thank the local media who came out for both events last Saturday. It is nice to see that we can make our voices heard loud and clear. Make sure to pick up a Hillsider newspaper as well– Naomi works very hard getting the stories that matter.