Calendar guys to attend luncheon & fashion show

The excitement is building for the 58th Annual Salvation Army Women’s Auxiliary Christmas Luncheon &  Fashion Show to be held a week from yesterday. Beth Dennis, chair of the fashion show, and Judy White, manager of Miss Jackson’s, were guests on Good Day Tulsa  yesterday and I got to hang with them at KTUL-Tulsa’s Channel 8 while waiting for their segment.  KTUL is on top of Lookout Mountain in west Tulsa. Once, on my drive there very early in the morning, I picked the wrong street to take me up the mountain and I ended up in someone’s driveway. It was so isolated and wooded, I felt like if I went a few more feet I was going to run into a still. I’m from Southwest Virginia, so I know what I’m talking about. Anyway, Beth is so conscientious, she always has Carolyn Schutte, another auxiliary member, drive her to KTUL because Carolyn knows West Tulsa. Beth and Judy showed off a $2,000 diamond necklace donated by Moody’s Jewelry that will be auctioned. One of the most unusual items to bid on has to be dinner at a fire station with some of Tulsa’s finest firefighters. Two of the Tulsa Fire Department calendar models will be at the luncheon to encourage bidding on the dinner. I’m picturing a frenzy of bidding over the firemen dinner. You can be part of the action too – just call Jackie Pizarro at 918-369-9117 to make your reservation. See you there!


-Sallie

Girls swim an AMAZING number of laps in Broken Arrow

There are so many kids of staffers at the Broken Arrow Boys & Girls Club that it's hard to keep them straight.  But I’ll try, because two of them did something really outstanding recently and I want to congratulate them. The Aquatics Program staff at BA consists of Shelley Cramer, athletic director and Donna Burdick, aquatics director. These women along with club director Janis Fraley dreamed up an event thtat not only honored veterans on Veterans Day but encouraged them to stay heart healthy. The women named their event the Liquid Cardiothon, which I thought sounded like something a college fraternity would sponsor, but hey - they know what works in Broken Arrow! The idea was to have someone active in their indoor pool from 11 a.m. on Veterans Day to 11 a.m. on the following Saturday. Donna called me the following Monday, still excited about the event. She said they had someone coming or going from the club all hours of the night. But back to the children of staffers: Shelley’s daughters Neriah, 15, and Miai, 12, each stayed in the pool for all 24 hours. Neriah swam 1,700 laps and Miai swam 800 laps. I still can’t believe it – it’s all I can do to swim 20 laps! Congratulations girls – you rock!

-Sallie

Call in the Marines!

I’m still trying to catch my breath. Last week the number of people who have signed up for Christmas assistance climbed to 8,896. But as the numbers ramped up, so did the Tulsa community. Thursday, our longtime supporters, KTUL-Tulsa’s Channel 8 and Bank of Oklahoma, kicked off a toy drive to provide gifts for the forgotten angels – the kids and seniors people don’t adopt from the Angel Trees.




An hour later, we kicked off the Red Kettle Campaign at the Reasor’s on 15th and Lewis. We had wanted to honor veterans at our kick off and Jason Wolfe, a combat-decorated Army vet who counsels homeless veterans at the Center of Hope helped us out. I had lined up a retired Marine who still had his dress uniform to “guard” the Giant Red Kettle, but he had a last-minute conflict. But, just before the kick off began, TWO young Marines in their dress uniforms turned up!  Steve Lehto of Reasor’s gave us a check for $5,000. 


At 5:30 a.m. the next day, Jim Carey and Natalie Cash of K95 FM’s Cash & Carey Morning Show started “Occupy Krispy Kreme” and adopted out 400 angels. Their original goal had been 200 angels but by 9:30 a.m. they ran out of angels. We were happy to bring them 200 more and they found homes for all of them!

On Saturday, we held the Angel Tree Opening Ceremony at Tulsa’s Promenade and Woodland Hills mall, which KOTV-Channel 6 has sponsored longer than anyone can remember. Rich Lenz and LeAnne Taylor selected their angels from the trees and the Brass Band played. Thank you, Tulsa – 10,048 people are going to have a Christmas because of you!


-Sallie

OCCUPY KRISPY KREME!

Natalie Cash and Jim Carey, hosts of the Cash & Carey Morning Show on K95.5 fm, will lead a new protest movement Friday called “Occupy Krispy Kreme.”  They will stay at Krispy Kreme from 5:30 a.m. until 200 “angels” are adopted from The Salvation Army Angel Trees or until 5:30 p.m., whichever comes first.  The Angel Trees have tags with the first names of thousands of kids whose parents have signed up for Christmas assistance from The Salvation Army.

A General Assembly will be held at 9 a.m. Friday at Krispy Kreme,  located at 10128 E. 71st. St. “We will discuss all issues pertaining to the Occupy Krispy Kreme movement, including but not limited to…adopting angels and eating donuts,” Cash said. “We’re exercising our First Amendment right to assemble peaceably on the grounds of Krispy Kreme and we’re prepared to occupy this ground until we adopt out every Angel on the Cash & Carey Salvation Army Angel Tree,” Carey said.

The Salvation Army never supports political causes but is making an exception for this event. “Starting a new protest movement is a tough job, but Cash and Carey will meet the challenge,” said Major Roy Williams, Salvation Army Tulsa Area Commander. “Occupy Krispy Kreme is a protest everyone should support.”

Cash and Carey are encouraging the police to converge on their Occupy Movement.  “We will not resist. We will give you donuts and thank you for your hard work,” Carey said. Unlike other “occupy” movements, Occupy Krispy Kreme has a clear purpose.  “Every kid deserves a Christmas present,” Cash and Carey said. 

Help! We’re serving 4,200 families this Christmas!

This summer, about the time our neighbor Yale Avenue Presbyterian Church put up a sign saying “Satan called. He wants his weather back,” we started accepting applications for Christmas assistance. Families came to the warehouse in our new headquarters.  And came, and came and came. Mothers with babies. Mothers with toddlers in strollers. Mothers with toddlers we wished were in strollers. In all, we will be providing for 4,200 families this Christmas. That’s 700 more families than we helped last year. Here’s how you and your friends can help: drop money in a red kettle – our bell ringers go out to 100 stores today and will be there until Dec. 24. Drop a new unwrapped toy in a collection box at any of the 36 Bank of Oklahoma locations. You’ll also find toy boxes at Woodland Hills Mall,  Tulsa’s Promenade mall and at the BOK Center during events. While you’re at the mall, adopt an Angel from our Angel Trees. You have until Dec. 12 to get your toy back to the mall. Click to donate online, or call K95.5 Friday during "Occupy Krispy Kreme" to adopt an Angel. You can text JOY to 85944 and make a one-time donation of $10.  Or give the old fashioned way by mailing a check to Salvation Army, PO Box 397, Tulsa, OK 74101.
And watch this blog for more opportunities to help us help the people who really need it this Christmas.

-Sallie

United Way celebrates

A bunch of us from the office attended the great “reveal” for the Tulsa Area United Way last night, and oh, what a night! It was in the new Lorton Hall at TU, which is beautiful. TAUW director Mark Graham pointed out that the artwork lining the halls was done by TU students and mentioned a print by Picasso in the same sentence. Campaign chair Jim Bender from Williams didn’t let him get away with that. “Every day I learn something new about Tulsa, and tonight I learned that Pablo Picasso graduated from TU. He’s a good painter too,” Jim said. We were all laughing and revved up as we waited to see how Mark would do the reveal. Picture a pregnant woman in a white t-shirt with a giant dollar sign. She came up on stage followed by eight people, young and old, with numbers on their t-shirts. As it turned out, each person had been helped in some way by a United Way agency. Then Mark brought his 85-year-old mother on stage and told how she and his father had been helped by three United Way agencies. He said that everyone on stage “looked like you and me, because they are you and me.” It was the perfect thing to say.

Every day I work for the Salvation Army I think, ‘but for the grace of God, there go I.’ Mark wore the number four and a young man to his left wore a two. The 24 million dollar goal was reached and thousands of people will be helped in 2012. Thank you to everyone who worked on the campaign and the United Way.
 
-Sallie

Sapulpa Boys & Girls Club instructors get creative

 I love water aerobics. There’s just something so relaxing about being in the water with a bunch of friends. And unlike Jazzercize, for example, where instructors have bodies like beauty pageant contestants, in every water aerobics class I’ve taken, the instructor has had a body more like mine. I like that, and apparently so do 31 water exercisers in Sapulpa. The water aerobics classes taught mornings on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at the Boys & Girls Club, used to have about eight to 12 students. Then volunteer water aerobics teacher Darlene Roberts and head lifeguard Mary Swan told class members that if they could get attendance up to 30, they  would hold a drawing for five free classes. Last week, there were 31 students in the class and the ladies are hopeful the trend will continue.  However, the doubled class size has created one problem: each student needs two water noodles and they’re down to just a few.  I’m confident Mary and Darlene won’t let it slow the class down. These women have creativity and drive to spare.

-Sallie

Learning Smart Moves

Since I’ve been blogging about drug addiction and the Salvation Army, here, here and here I’ve learned about the importance of prevention. I also learned that we now have a national expert on kids and drug prevention among our staff, Greg Parker.  Greg became a national trainer for the Boys & Girls Club Smart Moves program this summer. He’s one of six specially trained Smart Moves instructors and the only one in the country from The Salvation Army. Smart Moves instructors teach kids 5 to 15 to make healthy choices and avoid using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. 

The younger kids do fun activities related to the subject, such as drawing pictures of their families and creating collages. But what I found the most surprising is that the primary activity for the 13-15 age group is journaling. At the Sand Springs club, kids spend an hour every Thursday afternoon writing in their journals. Then while the kids watch, the instructor locks the journals up until the next Thursday. Nobody gets to read them. I would have loved having that kind of privacy at that challenging age -- to know that I could write anything, absolutely anything, in my journal and my mother couldn’t read it!  Greg and I talked about how much easier it is for kids to talk to adults at the club about their issues when they’re also writing about them in their journal. Sounds like a smart program to me.

-Sallie

Project Able helps recovering addicts rebuild their lives

I got to know John Oak when he was completing Project Able, a program at the Center of Hope that helps homeless people who are clean and sober get back in the workforce and in their own home. John stopped by to visit me last week and when I told him I was working on a story about meth addiction, he told me his story. He said he started using alcohol and pot when he was 14 and dropped out of school at 15. I’ve noticed that this is the age many addicts get started. John said he moved on to cocaine and acid, started cooking meth when he was 29 and immediately became addicted. His life became a roller coaster ride of incarcerations and rehabilitation programs that didn’t work. But in 2006, he started a prison rehab program called First Step, and began his recovery. I was surprised that First Step didn’t have a spiritual component, but still worked. John said it was the desire to build a new relationship with his father that allowed him to focus on his recovery and rebuild his life. He got out of prison in 2008 and showed up at the Center of Hope “with nothing but the clothes on my back.” He joined Project Able. He went back to work for his old employer, riding his bike the twenty miles from the Center to work and back five days a week. I admire that. John saved up enough money during his two years in Project Able to make the down payment on a new mobile home, where he now lives. Congratulations on your new life, John. You’ve worked hard to earn everything you have. Now it’s time to enjoy it!

-Sallie

In praise of three gentlemen

Last week one of my coworkers told me a story that made me think that chivalry is not dead, that there are men (other than my husband) who are true gentlemen. The story was that after the Women’s Leadership Council toured the Center of Hope, the head of Social Services, Ronn Glosson, stood in the parking lot to make sure the visitors got safely in their cars and on their way. What I didn’t see was that he also stayed in the parking lot until the last female staff member drove away (It was Lindsay and she was checking voicemail and playing with her iPhone, she felt guilty when she realized he had been waiting for her to leave). He went beyond what was expected of him because that’s who he is. I thought I would blog about it as soon as I had a small collection of stories about gentlemen, never dreaming that I’d meet the next one two days later.

A radio show host was recording an interview with last year’s top bell ringer, Samuel Folks. Samuel is 60, soft spoken and mannerly. He revealed that he had been on the first all-black youth baseball team in Tulsa that was allowed in an all-white league. When the interviewer asked him if he had experienced racial injustice, he replied “I’ve found that when you’re looking for racial injustice you’ll find it. When you’re not looking, you don’t find it.” I can only guess that even as a youth, Samuel handled himself with dignity whether he was treated with dignity or not.

My third brush with a gentleman happened the same week at a celebration of Dick Williamson’s 40 years with TD Williamson. Dick is not only on our advisory board, but also on the National Salvation Army board. He also volunteers extensively. His company’s motto is “Integrity, Initiative, Interdependence.” Employees characterize him as a “servant leader,” and I can see that in his humble style and quiet leadership. I first met Dick when he taught a Sunday School class I attended 15 years ago. In eight days, I’ve gathered enough information for a post that I thought would take months to do. Thank you, gentlemen, you enrich life for all of us.

-Sallie

National advocate for the homeless stops in Tulsa

Mark Hovarth was in Tulsa today as part of his tour to end homelessness. Mark is known to social media fans as @hardlynormal and for his blog, invisiblepeople.tv. Center of Hope Case Manager Gale Baker gave him a tour of the Center of Hope  and lined up shelter guests for him to film. When Mark interviewed several of our guests from the Center, he told them that he is homeless, yet I noticed he was driving an expensive car, was staying at the Hyatt Regency and wearing an expensive-looking jacket, so I asked about it. He said everyone does. He said that people don’t have to suffer to relieve suffering. It turns out that the Hyatt Regency donated his stay and GM gave him his car to help him with his cause. That's so generous!

Mark seemed impressed by the size of the Center of Hope and the scope of our programs. I had read about his many accomplishments with helping homeless people and asked him what he considered his greatest contribution.  He said he never would have expected all the remarkable things that have happened so far, such as someone donating land for a garden to feed the homeless and  a college donating two full scholarships to those facing homelessness.  He said he’s not going to predict because his greatest accomplishment is yet to come. He said he does the best he can with the gifts God gave him and God takes care of the rest.
Safe travels, Mark, come see us again.

-Sallie

Women's Leadership Council

I saw something at the Center of Hope that touched me yesterday. I was at a meeting of the Women’s Leadership Council (WLC) of the Tulsa Area United Way. The Women's Leadership Council is a new organization of business and community leaders who have a passion for improving the lives of those less fortunate in the Tulsa area.

The women in WLC are leaders in philanthropy, business and both. Center of Hope director Arletta Robinson took the group of 20 to the second story to see the men’s dorm. It took two elevator rides to fit in the whole group. I was waiting with the women for the second elevator when in walked a couple with two strollers. One stroller held an infant, the other a toddler, a little boy who clearly wanted to be out of the stroller. A woman with our group on the elevator saw the family and looked absolutely stricken. The words “so sad!” slipped out of her mouth before she could stop them, but thankfully, the parents were so busy keeping the little boy under control, they didn’t hear. For the rest of the tour, I saw the same woman fighting tears. Most people don’t know that families stay at the Center of Hope. But when they see that they do, it changes their impression of who we serve forever.

-Sallie

Christmas coming to Sand Springs

Are you in Sand Springs? Do you know someone in need in the area? We will begin Christmas assistance registration on Monday, Oct. 24 and will continue through Oct. 27 from 9a.m.-5p.m. daily. Parents will need to bring photo ID's for all the adults in the household, Birth certificates for each child in the home, proof of all income and expenses and clothing sizes for each child.

We are also looking for a few good Sandites to help us raise vital funds via the Red Kettle Campaign. Volunteers/groups wishing to sign-up can contact Captain Patrick T. Gesner by email at patrick_gesner@uss.salvationarmy.org or by phone at (918)245-2237 ext. 1611 to check available dates and times. Individuals looking for some extra cash for the holiday season can also apply to work full-time or part-time as bell ringers for this campaign. The dates of employment will be from November 17th through Christmas Day.

-Captain Gesner

Make Your Mark, Help Feed the Hungry

Did you know that in the U.S., 49 million people go hungry every day? Did you know that, together, people like you and I can make a difference? This week is a national volunteer week for youth and Saturday, October 22nd is Make a Difference Day for all Americans. The Salvation Army and our Boys & Girls Clubs are joining over 1,400 others pledged to help the issue of hunger in America during Make Your Mark Week and Make a Difference Day.

Join us by donating non-perishable food items during a food drive this week, October 16-22nd. All food raised will go to needy families in the Tulsa Metro Area. You can drop off non-perishable food items at any Boys & Girls Club (Broken Arrow, Sand Springs, Sapulpa or Tulsa) or the Area Command Office (924 S. Hudson, Tulsa). Having trouble finding us, call 918-587-7801.

Read more about Make Your Mark Week and  Make a Difference Day.

-Rhonda, Volunteer Coordinator

Baseball team plays Dodgeball at West Mabee

When I reached the doors to the gym at the West Mabee Boys & Girls Club it seemed as if the room could hardly contain the shouts of pure, unbridled joy. And that was just from the grownups. The ORU Golden Eagles baseball team had come to play with the West Mabee kids and there was shouting, screaming and peals of laughter. The game was Dodgeball, but not your mother’s Dodgeball.

The 33 baseball players combined with 22 club kids to form two opposing teams. Then about 20 different colored balls were lined up in the middle of the gym, a whistle blew and it was mass mayhem as both teams rushed to grab a ball and throw it at someone. That’s all I can tell you about the rules. It did seem like one of those games where size didn’t matter, I decided, as one very little girl threw the ball at one very large baseball player. I don’t think her aim was intentional, but the guys in the stands roared with laughter as he winced in pain. I had not realized that ORU sends volunteers to West Mabee every Wednesday to help with their homework. The club’s program director Latrica Baldwin said it was the first time the baseball team had come to West Mabee and the kids loved it. If they had half as much fun as the adults, it was a great afternoon.

-Sallie

Getting clean at the ARC

It is not hard to see why Reggie Kelly believes his greatest skill is working with people. He’s a large, muscular man with a contagious smile. It is hard to see him as the crack cocaine addict he says he used to be, so caught up in the violence of the drug community that he was once dragged on the ground behind a truck for so long that stripped the skin off his body and left him with a crushed ankle. He says his ankle is held together with three pins and his life is held together with a structured lifestyle, accountability to peers who are recovering drug addicts and belief in Christ. In previous posts, I’ve written about meth addiction, but The Salvation Army helps people with all kinds of addictions. Reggie lives and works as a resident manager in The Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC), along with 70 other men recovering from substance abuse.

Before I started to work for the Army, I had long been a shopper at the ARC Family Store on 45th and Peoria. I had no idea that when I donated or bought something at the store, I was helping men recovering from substance abuse. The men work 40 hour weeks at the stores, and in the evenings, they participate in Bible studies and a Christian 12 Step Program called Celebrate Recovery. Reggie says he has been convicted of drug-related felonies seven times and served five different prison terms. But unlike the men I had heard about who are court ordered to the ARC, he checked himself in to work out the issues that he said had haunted him since before he first started using alcohol and marijuana at 15. He proudly told me that he has been clean and sober for 10 months. His advice to kids about drug use? “Don’t start. Drugs are not a solution to whatever you’re going through. Get into a church and learn who Jesus Christ is. He is the solution.” Thank you, Reggie, for sharing your story. I wish you the best in your recovery and your life.

-Sallie

Voices of Hope – come back!

In talking with Gwen Bess, another thing I learned is that Voices of Hope is in limbo. You might have seen the story about Voices of Hope on the Tulsa World website. The choir started because some Center of Hope guests wanted a singing group and asked Gwen for help. She found a music director and they used the Center chapel for practice. The choir performed in churches and for a Christmas lunch attended by 600. Gwen said even choir members who are still around the shelter stopped coming to practice. I felt disappointed, but even more disappointed than me is a Jenks High School junior named Michael. He saw the story on the World’s website and had planned to make a film about the choir for a class. He filmed a choir practice in May and it turned out so well that his teacher was looking forward to entering his film in the “Sundance of student film competitions” which Jenks has placed in before. To watch their winning film, go here and enjoy. In the mean time, here’s a message to Susan and Stormy and Big John and Evelyn: Come back to choir. There’s a kid who was counting on you!

-Sallie

Embracing a chatty style

A friend sent me a cartoon yesterday that perfectly captured this stage of my writing career. It was a sketch of an old dog saying “I think it’s time to learn some new tricks.” My new boss, friend and fellow blogger, Lindsay Sparks, asked me to give up my former newspaper-reporter-writing style for this blog, including abandoning some rules in my beloved Associated Press Stylebook. “I’m destroying your world, aren’t I?” Lindsay asked me yesterday. I’m quoting her because it’s also time to give up quotes, according to Lindsay. “According to” is also something you won’t be seeing again on this blog.

One thing keeps echoing in my head, one sentence in “The Elements of Style”, by William Strunk, Jr. and E. B.White, which I had to memorize as a senior in high school. “Do not affect a chatty style.” But another sentence is echoing even more loudly, and it’s from the old dog: “It’s time learn something new.” After all, I don’t want the next cartoon e-mailed to me to be a sketch of a dinosaur – remember what happened to them?

-Sallie

The Center of Hope: Serving without Discrimination

Meth addiction is a real problem, no doubt about it. There are signs and symptoms just like any other disease. According to Arletta Robinson, director of the Center of Hope, it’s impossible to compile statistics about the number of guests at the Center who may be addicted to methamphetamine. The only way Center of Hope case managers know that a guest has used or is using meth is when they ask for help and admit that they use meth. “However, that’s ‘self reporting’, so not even that is reliable,” Arletta said. “We don’t conduct urine testing, because we serve without discrimination. As for looking for physical traits that are red flags for meth use, such as tooth loss, that would be profiling, and we don’t do that.  What if the guest lost their teeth in an accident?” Arletta said.  What we do know is that when a guest self reports meth use and wants help, we work with many different Tulsa agencies, (including our own Adult Rehabilitation Center, ARC) to get them help.  And while the guest is working with other agencies to get help, we offer them food, shelter and a listening ear.

How do the case managers and other staff members at the Center of Hope listen to stories of drug abuse, and disastrous choices guests have made and still serve with compassion rather than judgment?

"It’s a mind frame,” case manager Gwen Bess said. “All of us have made mistakes, made stupid choices. People tell themselves they’re  not going to get addicted. You can’t know what someone has been through in their lives. They have pain and they self medicate. Some survive their past and some don’t.  It takes compassion, objectivity and empathy.  That’s what I mean by a mind frame,” Gwen said.

Coming up next learn about how Tulsa agencies are stepping up to help and what we are doing as a community.at I mean by a mind frame,” Gwen said.
 

-Sallie

Meth Addiction and The Salvation Army

Did anyone else see the story on CBS News Tuesday evening about TV commercials reducing teenage meth usage in Montana by 63%? That’s an astounding reduction. The TV ads have been running for six years. They’re very graphic and disturbing – apparently disturbing enough to have an effect. How does this relate to the Salvation Army?  Some of the teens who get hooked on meth can sometimes turn into homeless adults who we help at the Center of Hope – our shelter and social services center. And our ARC Family Stores support the Adult Rehabilitation Center where all kinds of substance abuse issues are addressed. Last Christmas a 30-something woman at the shelter thanked me for serving food that she could chew with her gums, as she had no upper teeth. I asked her how she lost her teeth at such a young age. “Meth,” she said. I claimed ignorance and she promptly educated me. “One of the ingredients of meth is battery acid,” she said, making it clear. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting interviews with Salvation Army staff members and their thoughts about meth addiction and how we help people who are affected by it. Stay tuned...

-Sallie