First blogger entry

The first time I ever came to Spectrum was the Sunday after Thanksgiving, 2002. I had applied for the position of executive director, after having been told that Spectrum ran the largest shelter for homeless adolescents in the state. The board of directors flew me up from where I was living, Yonkers, New York, for an interview. The cab dropped me off in front of Spectrum, and since I was a few minutes early, I stood in front and peered in the front window of what was labeled “Spectrum Drop-In Center.” Looking in, I saw couches, a kitchen, and a clothing rack. A sign taped to the entrace listed the servcies offered there – free hot lunch, hot dinner, shower, laundry, clothing rack, help with finding employment, recreational activities such as snowboarding, hiking, and biking. Also posted were the hours the center was open, and I noticed it was only Monday through Friday. And my first thought was, “Why is this drop-in center closed? Homeless kids don’t take weekends off.” And my next thought was, “If I do get this job, I will find a way to keep this center open on weekends.”

Well I did get the job and inquired early on, “Why is the drop-in closed on weekends?” Lack of funds was the answer, which had been my first guess. I also discovered in those early weeks that lack of funds was a serious problem for the organization as a whole; we were barely able to meet payroll each week. So I knew that as much as I wanted the drop-in to be open on weekends, it was not going to be a quick fix.

Two years later I wrote an editorial in the Burlington paper asking why wealthy individuals donate millions to colleges which already have endowments sometimes in the billions, while organizations like ours which help the poorest of the poor get little or nothing. It caught the eye of one of the wealthiest people in Vermont, and he contacted me, asking for a tour of our program. I did so, and he donated $25,000 right off the bat.

A year later I gave the same tour to his foundation director, and as we walked through the drop-in center I said something to the effect of, “My goal is to keep this place open on weekends, and if I had $50,000 I could do it.” A month later we had a check for $75,000 – the original $25 plus the extra $50 for the drop-in. Incredible. We quickly hired the staff we needed for weekends, and in very little time the drop-in was open 7 days a week, 365 days a year. This donor did it again the next year, and is likely to continue on an on-going basis. “Homless kids don’t take weekends off.” Exactly.

Mark Redmond

This entry was posted on Monday, May 21st, 2007 at 8:03 pm and is filed under GENERAL ENTRIES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.