Care 66 hopes for increased awareness

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Staff writer

GALLUP — Last year brought a number of good things to CARE 66, but perhaps one of the best was increased public awareness of CARE 66’s existence.

Although CARE 66 was established several years ago, many community members haven’t apparently gotten the message that it exists, CARE 66 volunteer coordinator Geri Moore said. The nonprofit organization — officially Community Area Resource Enterprise Inc. — offers Gallup’s homeless men the chance to get off the street and turn their lives around.

In the fall, Moore issued a challenge to the local community to participate in a number of proposed projects for National Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week in November. In a recent interview, Moore said she was pleased with the first-time effort although she had hoped for more involvement from the business community.

“It heightened the awareness,” Moore said of the week’s events. Through the homelessness awareness campaign, Moore said, more area residents learned about CARE 66 and its work in Gallup. An added bonus was that more people needing to serve community service hours are now volunteering at CARE 66. One such volunteer, Moore said, was a woman who became so interested in CARE 66 that she recruited a friend, a professional chef, to prepare Christmas dinner for the residents.

According to Moore, community participation included the following events.

Clothing Drive

CARE 66 residents received some much needed men’s clothing items from the efforts of First United Methodist Church members, a youth group from Grace Bible Church, and students at Chief Manuelito Middle School. “We’re still in great need for winter coats for men,” Moore said.

Sixth-grader Krystal Bennally and her mother, Arlene Bennally, helped pass on two truckloads of mostly women and children’s clothing that had been sent to a mission in Borrego Pass. Some of the clothing has been donated to local social service agencies, but Moore is looking for more volunteers to sort the remaining clothing and more organizations and communities that would like to pick up clothing boxes for needy women and children.

Entertainment

After working all day sorting and boxing donations, students from Hope Christian Middle School in Albuquerque furnished a pizza dinner for the CARE 66 residents and then entertained them with music and a short drama entitled “The Sower and The Seed.”

Dinners

A number of other individuals, organizations, and churches provided dinners including local residents Ben Fredrickson and Robert Kline, Gallup High School’s SADD club, Rehoboth Christian Church, and First United Methodist Church.

School Projects

Several Gallup and Navajo Nation schools participated in fundraising programs, food and clothing drives, and homelessness awareness projects. Students at Miyamura High School collected pennies and raised more than $200, students at Gallup Catholic School and a Gallup High School mentoring class conducted a food drive, and Chief Manuelito Middle School teacher Sara Kamp supervised a class competition to donate canned goods and men’s shirts and pants. Twin Lakes Elementary teacher Valencia Tilden directed homelessness lessons and poster projects, and her students wrote personal letters to CARE 66 residents.

Rehoboth Middle School students also participated in homelessness awareness projects, sold CARE 66 salsa in their school “mini-mall,” and raised $1,200 through a giving tree. Navajo Technical College conducted a public awareness campaign, and students in some classes at Gallup High School and Tohatchi High School also studied homelessness issues.

Homeless Challenge

CARE 66 resident Kenneth Grissom became a guide for Gallup Independent reporter Phil Stake when Stake took up Moore’s challenge to live like a homeless person for a day or more. That 36 hour experience led to several articles in the Independent, and Moore said she would like to see a local government official take up the challenge next year.

Other Involvement

Members of the UNM-G Nursing Department donated $150 from a “Skip a Meal Project,” the Children’s Library promoted a suggested reading and video list and posted a community bulletin board about homelessness, Faith Christian Fellowship, First Baptist Church, and Grace Bible Church all featured sermons about homelessness issues, and Coldwell Banker/High Desert Realty donated a new set of dishes for the facility.

Information: CARE 66 at (505) 722-0066 or www.care66.org