Last night we had 73 people at our P.A.D.S. homeless shelter. P.A.D.S. is an acronym for "Public Action to Deliver Shelter". Seventy three is two shy of our fullest capacity, and thirteen more people than we own sleeping pads for. It’s starting to get colder here, and the group is only going to get bigger. There are homeless folks everywhere. Make the time to go volunteer at the shelter near you, or, failing that, donate your spare change for a month. (Do NOT run out and buy lots of little toiletries unless they are requested.)

Donate clean, used blankets, sheets, socks, underwear, (assorted sized, five times more men’s than women’s), your old winter coat, should you be lucky enough to have more than one. Our shelter has a trade-in policy. If we have coats, and they’re warmer than the coats folks are wearing, we trade them for their current coat. We clean the older coats, repair them, and send them to shelters in warmer areas. Donate cash, if you can, because a shelter uses lots of food and paper products.

It’s cold outside where I live. Someone donated eighty assorted pairs of new winter boots, which we gave out last month. These replaced shoes and boots that were so worn out, some of them had cardboard covering the holes. How long has it been since you worried about that? Never? Go volunteer out of gratitude.

Donate your old clothes. This goes double for the larger sizes. At our shelter, fifteen percent of our guests are bigger than the average bear. These are the things most shelters really need.

I have volunteered at the homeless shelter for a couple of years. Now my sister is homeless in Madison, Wisconsin, and I volunteer more frequently than I used to, in gratitude tor the folks who take her in. Someone you know, or knew once, is homeless. You could be just a few paychecks away from homelessness, yourself. Reach out, folks. It's good for what ails our culture. Happy Friday.