Bread for Manna (Soup Kitchen) is one of the organization’s most important fundraisers each year, and this year was no exception.
In a departure, the event was actually held at the soup kitchen, where about 150 people gathered to enjoy an extensive buffet of appetizers and desserts donated by about 17 area restaurants along with Manna’s Culinary Arts Program students.
While the partying was going on outside in a big white tent, inside, a cornucopia of silent auction items held sway. Between those and a few sweet live auction items, including special dinners, pampering and flowers for her, adventures for him, all auctioned off by former radio man Bob Griffith, the organization raised about $30,000.
The most moving part of the evening was a Manna client who was coming up on her first year of sobriety from addiction and doing it with help from the committed staff and volunteers. Her goal, she said, was to get her children back in her life, and they are. That’s a powerful healing for an entire family from people who did not give up on her.
I have been rather disappointed in my community for the last few months. I understand the aggravation and business consequences of panhandling and agree that it’s important to discourage it.
But I am appalled at the lumping in of all of the people struggling with housing issues and food-insecurity into an umbrella of panhandlers who are too “lazy” to work. While researching our homelessness series this summer, and hearing the stories of people who keep getting back up and fighting to build a life after being knocked down again and again, who have no safety net of friends or families, who are dealing with mental illnesses and are just trying to survive, and who have fallen into addictions and have little or no access to care, anyone who’s doing well should realize just how lucky they are.
And it is often luck, as Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in Outliers. Luck in being born to supportive parents, luck in being able to attend a good school, good fortune in where and when we were born, in having mentors and bosses who have helped us succeed.
As someone who has bipolar disorder, I particularly struggle with the comments about how mentally ill people should just suck it up and get on with their lives. I’m fortunate to have good medical care, a family who has supported me through some ups and downs and to have found a combination of medications that help me live a productive life. My bipolarism is genetic, so just as I have green eyes, I have wonky brain chemistry.
I haven’t written about my bipolar disorder for awhile, and people always seem surprised to find out. But while I’m not a poster child for living well with a mental illness, I am a reminder that it is possible if the stars fall just right. I got lucky.
I hope readers will pardon the rant – it’s been coming for several months, and it’s my birthday gift to myself.
Manna, Volunteers of America and other organizations working with the most fragile among us deserve all the support we can give, because we need to share the luck. Contributions are always needed. Mail them to Manna, P.O. Box 1196, Durango, CO 81302.
HHH
Birthdays, anniversaries and more Neighbors stories will return in mid-November, because in addition to the rant, I’m giving myself some time off for my birthday. Happy birthday to all my fellow Scorpios.
neighbors@durangoherald.com
