Nickelsville
August 28th, 2009
As I mentioned yesterday, I volunteered at the Gnomedex conference in order to get access to the conference for free. And to be honest, I feel like I kinda ripped Chris Pirillo off because my “task” was something I would have done regardless of getting the conference pass or not. All I had to do was solicit aluminum trays from some local restaurants and coordinate the transport of leftover conference food to a homeless encampment. Easy.
And just to demonstrate just how easy it was, I was able to coordinate food transport solely through the use social media. I didn’t even need to get up off of my arse for it. Via Twitter I was able to connect with Mark Horvath (@hardlynormal) who helped me to find Dustin Cross (@dustincross) and together we took the leftover conference food (around 8-10 trays) to a homeless encampment called Nickelsville (named after our departing Mayor Greg Nickels). Mark was one of the speakers at Gnomedex and he is known for his work with InvisiblePeople.tv. Dustin works with the Nickelsville residents on a daily basis as a Street Minister.
In the original plan, I was going to have Dustin and Mark transport the food. At the last minute I decided to forgo the conference and go with them.
I will be the first to admit that I have never had experience with a homeless encampment, but as far as I am concerned, the people that I met at Nickelsville are amazing. Funny, self-deprecating, earnest. Amazing.
When I was there, I happen to meet this couple named Bruce and Donna (see InvisiblePeople.tv video below). Even under the most difficult of circumstances, the two of them remain positive and grateful for the generosity that they have witnessed. They did not complain once while I chatted with them. In fact, they talked about the future. They talked about their dreams.
When I asked several people what they needed, they unanimously said that they needed people to “see them.” They kept inviting me to come back. Stay for dinner. Bring other people to visit. They wanted me to bear witness to their situation. It was inspiring and heartbreaking all at the same time. I am still thinking about them. It still weighs heavy on my mind.
Just a few days after the conference, Nickelsville received notice that they are being evicted, yet again. They are running out of options.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 11:00 am and is filed under Daily. 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.
