Eat Outside the Box: event to end homelessness

As part of the Homelessness Bites campaign, a campaign to raise awareness and money for Indianapolis’s homeless, The Salvation Army put together the second annual Eat Outside the Box event. A lunch was served from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. Friday, May 14 at the Veteran’s Memorial Plaza. Numerous people had the $5 lunch which included a hamburger or hotdog, chips, coleslaw and a drink, while 67 homeless persons ate for free.

About 7,500 Hoosiers in Indianapolis are homeless each year. Many times these individuals are single mothers and their children. The Salvation Army provides for homeless mothers and their children at the Women and Children’s Shelter in Indianapolis. Julia Sipes, special events coordinator for the shelter, says that raising money for the Homelessness Bites cause “means they (shelter residents) can eat. Every cent helps.”

Sipes says that a major benefit of The Salvation Army’s Women and Children’s Shelter is that it’s a safe haven. Some of the women and children at the shelter are escaping domestic violence. The shelter provides more than just a bed, but also life skills classes that include parenting courses, nutrition courses and guest speakers.

Homelessness Bites spokesperson Mel McMahon was looking for a way to help others when Jeff Stanger, Development Director of The Indiana Salvation Army, asked her to join the Homelessness Bites campaign last August. “I could not turn it down,” says McMahon.

One of McMahon’s main focuses for the Homelessness Bites campaign is to reach out to young people and make them more aware of the services that The Salvation Army provides.  

Volunteering their time and providing music for the event was Band Wagon. The band is a familiar participant in these events, performing at The Salvation Army’s Apple Fest event last October.

“It’s just a great honor for us,” says Band Wagon singer Lisa Kopczynski. “We’ll do it every time they ask us to.”

There were many supporters and participants in this year’s Eat Outside the Box. Hot dogs, hamburgers and chips were provided by All-American Picnic Company and GFS Marketplace, and drinks were donated by Ricker’s Stores and Noodles and Company. Other participants included Two Men and a Truck, ampm, ChaCha, 107.9, WISH-TV, Ivy Tech Community College, Comcast, Avon, Indy Star, The American Legion, The Indianapolis Colts, The Indiana Pacers, Indy Custom Cornhole and HVAF.

Historic Doughnut Girls Honored

Over 90 years ago a group of women from The Salvation Army went to care for American soldiers in France during World War I. These inventive women used the little resources they had to bring some hope to the frontlines. Sugar, flour, eggs, baking soda and powdered sugar were in their limited supply of goods. Not the right ingredients needed to create a feast, but rather a treat and gesture of kindness. They made doughnuts with these ingredients and passed them out with coffee among the soldiers, who started calling them the Doughnut Girls. The name stuck. Read more

White Lick Elementary students help others

Two by two, third and fourth grade students at White Lick Elementary in Brownsburg walked around teacher Julie Copeland’s class room filling their Salvation Army boxes with goodies. The students have been collecting these goodies, consisting of non-perishable food items and a few toiletries, to be added to the boxes and sent to those in need.

More than 60 students helped with the food drive to achieve their goal of 80 care packages, which they will distribute themselves to residents of Booth Manor May 20, 2010. Booth Manor is an affordable Salvation Army-based housing facility for low income seniors. Also on this day, the students plan on performing a small talent show for the seniors, having a pizza lunch with them and helping Booth Manor with a work project.

Third grade teacher Julie Copeland says that the student’s desire to serve others in this way sprung from a book discussion the class had back in December. The book discussed was Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting, which tells the story of a homeless boy and his father who live in an airport. Copeland said that the book discussion led the students to consider what they could do to help others.  

Accompanying the care packages will be a teddy bear and a note to the recipients from the students. On the front of the note it tell readers that they are cared for and gives a quote from William Authur Ward that reads, “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it, you can become it.”

New Advisory Board members

The Salvation Army’s motto is “doing the most good.” This motto is carried out in a number of ways, but one way in which the community is involved is through The Salvation Army Advisory Board.

Two new members have been recruited to join the board, Outreach Developer for Response Christian Church Bethany Nelson and Division Contract Manager of Indiana Family and Social Services Administration Ed Offerman. Nelson and Offerman were both inducted into the Advisory Board April 14, 2010.

These talented and accomplished individuals have been selected by the nominating committee for several reasons. Nelson has experience serving people. From 1999 to 2003 she organized and operated children’s activities as director of Children’s Ministry. Now with the Response Christian Church, Nelson has helped set up a community center. Read more

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