There sat an African American man in a wheel chair. My eyes spotted him but my heart and conscience refused to see him. To me, he was just another invisible bum. Taking that exit became a habit and that same man at that same exit sat there every day. To avoid eye contact or speaking with him, I often ran through the red light. One day, the gentleman flipped me off. I turned my car around, got out and called him a bum and told him to go get a job and to get off drugs. Suddenly, he removed the newspaper from his lap and said, if my legs were't amputated, I would get a job. I was so embarrassed and ashamed that I started crying. His name was Mike, aka Deadlock Mike, aka BJ (Black Jesus). From that day on, every morning I would take the exit Mike sat at. He knew I was coming with coffee and donuts. This went on for approximately seven months. Mike's words to me were,"not everything is about money and money isn't everything. Sit and have a cup of coffee with me and watch the cars go by. Every person that drives by has a story."
I judged Mike thinking that he was an addict, but I was completely wrong. After meeting and spending time with Mike, I started to hate my job. I hated being a corporate woman. I hated the material world and possessions. I learned to love people and not things. Even on my days off, I would go downtown looking for Mike just so we could share a meal together. He never asked me for a single dime. In fact, the only thing he ever asked me for was a hug and a smile. Eventually, I left the media industry and pursued my passion to help others. I knew that I wanted to leave this world better than I found it, just like Mike did. Sadly, Mike passed away in 2013 from a hit and run.
Project Dignity Outreach is dedicated to Mike Alston, the homeless man who not only change my life but changed my soul as well. The greatest lesson I learned from him was to never judge anyone and that everyone is fighting a battle.
Please don't judge a homeless man, woman, young adult or child. The fact is, that we are all one paycheck away from being homeless ourselves and no one ever goes to sleep and says I would like to become homeless in the morning. Homeless people don't just need food, they need a smiling face to go along with it. You can restore their faith in humanity by just lending a helping hand like they're a worthy human being.
I've witnessed homeless people eating out of city dumpsters. It really hurts me to see their desperation. That desperation has shaken me to the core. After that, I have started feeding them myself and decided that this is what I would do for the rest of my life. It was an incident which touched my heart and sparked an inner voice which inspired me to take the path of giving. I started cooking from my own kitchen and paying for food out of pocket. I was unemployed and exhausted all my savings on food to help the needy. At this point I needed help from my community(s) so I used social media to spread the word and was amazed at the generous response from my community!
Homeless people got to know me as the pizza and chicken lady because this is what we feed our homeless families. A spark of inspiration is the driving force inside me that burns as a flame to serve all the home-less, mentally ill, disabled Veterans or the destitute people who cannot take care of themselves. For me we are all the same. Every human being in this world deserves to receive help when they are down. So I feel it is our duty to give back to the society to the best of our capability.
We have grown to be able to feed from 300 to 500 homeless people on an average Sunday. On Thanksgiving Day and other holidays, we provide meals for approximately 2000 homeless individuals throughout the Metro Detroit area and local homeless shelters.
What started off as a one man show now has grown to an amazing team of volunteers and a selfless board of directors aligned by a common vision. Most of the homeless people that Project Dignity and our volunteers provide help to are either disabled Veterans or young adults or teens abandoned by their families or perhaps mentally ill without anyone to look after them.
As Mother Teresa said, ‘If you cannot feed a hundred hungry people, just feed one!’
'We are a non-profit organization registered under Section 501(c)(3) and assigned number CS/CT 51311'