[ pg. 4 ]

We would start out early in the morning. Sometimes there would be clusters of shacks and mobile homes. It is such a rural area, that we would have to drive for miles to find them. Because they were so spread out and there were so many in need, we would often go until 1or 2 am in the morning. Once when I was with Rev. Washington’s daughter, Laura Ann Harrison,  who took over the food pantry when her father passed away, she asked, "Sal, why did you skip those houses over there." I replied, "There were no lights on, so I figured they were abandoned." She then informed me that these were the people who could not afford electricity. Shocked, I then asked her, "What, there are people in there?" She said, "Yes." I thought, if my little boy with the thousand hearts was with me, he would have told me. We backtracked and sure enough, there were people in those shacks. The children and parents were crying because they thought we had missed them. We emptied out the trucks that night about an hour later. As I drove back on the long journey home, I started to cry, wondering how many people I missed.  The very next week we filled up again and returned. I was hurting every day thinking that those people saw us drive past them without stopping to help them. How cruel!

 I went back and I started something new. I started having electric turned on everywhere and anywhere I could for the most needy, the children and elderly that could not fend for themselves. Most of the children are abandoned to their grandparents. Then I found out that this entire area did not have natural gas—bottled propane gas was what they used. Sometimes they had no heat. I contacted the propane gas companies and started having the heat turned on. Eventually the drivers on route would call my office to notify me of a family with elderly and children who were struggling without electricity, heat and freezing. I would pay for their tank to be filled or electric to be turned on. There was one lady who was 83 years old and taking care of her grandchildren that had been abandoned to her. They didn’t have any gas or electricity so I had it turned on for them. I would think back to being with my Mom, with the red notice saying the electric would be shut off or flipping the switch and wondering why the bulbs didn’t work. I guess I was like my son, a young boy with a lot of heart but no understanding of why cruelty existed in the world, the cruelty of no help, just poverty.

There is a wonderful lady who helped me on this journey who’s name is Karole Kettering. She is director and founder of  the Humanitarian Service Project which began in 1979.  HSP then grew into the Senior Citizen Project. She wanted to prove to people that in a suburban county, that was supposed to be so affluent and where most people lived above the standard of living, there are poverty-stricken among us that nobody knows about and many don’t care. She had located approximately 2,400 seniors that lived on less than $4,000 per year and I found myself helping, caring, loving senior citizens that did not have food, etc. We would provide items through this organization—food, turn on utilities, rent,  etc… I have a photo of a lady in her apartment with all her belongings packed in paper bags and she’s in a wheelchair. She was in her late 70’s, ready to become homeless. She was in tears, not knowing how she was going to carry all her belongings in these bags and with nowhere to go. It was so cold in her apartment, in the middle of winter, she was physically turning blue. The landlord informed us that they could no longer allow her to live there since she could not afford her utilities. Oh yes, her rent was paid, she was half starved, but the landlord could not help. We paid the rent, got the utilities turned on, and Karole Kettering kept in touch with her, to assist. The Humanitarian Service Project is a great organization, one of those that made the grade and that I still continue to give to. I sponsor elderly by the year. This provides food and necessities monthly. They also provide a "Senior’s Wish List" to me. The wish list includes all the items the elderly need—a chair, table, wheelchair, mattress, blankets, clothes, etc… We provide them. This organization continues to help children and elderly. They also have what is called the Children’s Birthday Project for children that don’t receive any gifts for their birthday. We help in this area also. They need to be children and play with toys. They need to have a little gift on their birthday. We provide monies for this. We provide several hundred coats for Karole to distribute. To this day, I still help this wonderful organization. For more information you can go to www.humanitarianservice.org.

As I was looking for organizations that were actually helping, I came across a group of people that call themselves the Jesus People. They were and still are helping more people than any other organization I have found. That includes the government agencies and other large organizations. They are feeding and sheltering hundreds of children and mothers. Mothers that were abandoned with their children, the elderly, anyone who needs help. I was shocked to hear that these people pulled their resources together and live on $4,400/yr in overhead for themselves individually, and then provide so much for so many. All of the members of the Jesus People staff live and eat with the poor. They all share meals together in their soup kitchen. I provided them with hundreds of pairs of shoes, thousands of blankets, thousands of diapers…. whatever I can do to help.

To view more 'Sal's Story' pages, please click the numbered links below.
Go to Page [pg.1] [pg. 2] [pg. 3] [pg. 5] [pg. 6] of Sal's story.