Essay: Spare change, spare kindness
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It's a quintessential summer day, and Boston Commons is abuzz with activity. Across the avenue I carefully scrutinize the passers-by -- a 20-something quickly moving her designer messenger bag to her other side, a middle-age man wearing a Red Sox cap clutching his young son closer, a group of teenagers staring as if I had two heads and five eyes, a college student typing on his smart phone almost stepping right over me and not bothering to apologize. Eventually, a woman drops a few quarters in my cup, but she scurries past before I even have a chance to say thank you.
I had the opportunity to experience this typical day in the life of a homeless person in Boston this past June and July as part of Impact Boston -- a community service, social action and advocacy summer program. Of the 105 participants from across the country, 13 of us were selected to work with Spare Change News -- Boston's alternative newspaper with a conscience founded, written and sold by homeless and formerly homeless people since 1992. The newspaper vendors buy each issue for 25 cents, sell them in highly populated areas in Boston and Cambridge for $1, and keep the net profits. The Spare Change program provides the proper resources, empowerment, opportunity and encouragement for homeless and economically disadvantaged people to create change in society through selling newspapers.
My intensive two-week encounter included panhandling to get a taste of what it is like to be homeless (I got $7.50 in two hours) and selling Spare Change News on the street (I sold one newspaper in about two hours). Of course we turned over our earnings to a group of homeless individuals we met at the train station. Panhandling and selling newspapers was challenging, and it opened my eyes to a new perception of homelessness. Although I felt shunned, ridiculed, demeaned and invisible, I also had a budding sense of purpose, empowerment and community.
First Published February 22, 2012 12:00 am
