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Posts Tagged ‘past recipients’

Day 280 – Read H.

Posted in Something for others, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 7, 2010| 3 Comments »

What are the chances that I choose a guy named Reed (or Read as today’s recipient spells his name) to receive my $10?  It appears to be 1/280!

Garrett making music at Conn. Ave and Q Street in NW DC. (photo: Reed)

It was a beautiful night and I took a walk over to Dupont Circle to see who I would find.  On the way over there I saw Garrett shaking his tambourine and singing gospels.  He seemed happy to see me and showed me his toothless smile.  I told him I had some more clothes for him that Meghan from Pennsylvania and Rachel from Florida had sent.  I asked if he was going to be there for a while, because if so, I would go back home and get the clothes and bring them to him.  Now you got to understand that Garrett’s track record for being where he says he is going to be is mediocre at best.  “Oh, I will definitely be here tonight until 10:00pm,” Garrett told me as I checked my watch.  This time he was good to his word and was still there when I got back around 8:00pm.

He seemed very happy to get all the items.  Combined Meghan and Rachedl sent him a pair of jeans, a hat, three shirts, two pants, a belt and a sweatshirt – everything was brand new!  Meghan and Rachel, you both rock!  I’m going to post a video of him receiving the items and singing a special song for Meghan and Rachel on the Year of Giving’s Facebook page later tonight.

Read was having a coffee and sending a message on his phone when I found him. (photo: Reed)

I left Garrett and walked over to Dupont Circle.  It was a beautiful evening and there were lots of people sitting around the picturesque fountain.  The soft sound of tumbling water blanketed the park.  I saw Read sitting on a bench thumbing away on his phone. 

When I asked if he would accept my $10, he replied, “Yeah, let me just finish sending this message and then we can talk.”  He finished and chatted for about 30 minutes or so.  “I don’t know what I will do with it,” Read said.  “I am lucky to be in a position to not have to worry too much about money.”

Read is no stranger to helping others out. (photo: Reed)

Read is a former AmeriCorps member who has been practicing giving for some time.  His AmeriCorps service took him to Jacksonville, FL where he worked on securing healthcare coverage for children who came from families who earned slightly above the cut-off to qualify for Medicare.   He also told me about some volunteer work he has done with half-way houses.

Originally from northeast Texas, Read completed his Master’s degree in Public Health at Boston University.  He has been here in DC for about 18 months.  “DC and Jacksonville have some things in common believe it or not,” Read related to me.  “Both have strong dichotomies when it comes to the rich and poor.”  Furthermore he astutely points out the transient nature of DC, “Nobody’s here long enough to pay attention to the local issues.”

Read is currently working with communities here in DC.  One project has to do with a local junior high school baseball team which is underfunded.  He plans to volunteer his time in order to help the team stay alive and hopefully grow.   “Maybe I’ll use this $10 toward helping them,” he said. 

Something Read pointed out about the $10 was interesting.  “I hardly ever use paper money,” he says explaining that he prefers to use credit and bank cards.  He posed an interesting question.  “I wonder how the responses of the people you meet would differ if you direct deposited  the money into their accounts instead of giving them cash.”  I have never thought about that but Read’s got a point.  People would probably use it differently.  He assured me that he would not put this $10 in his account, that it would get passed on.

Read's name is also a family name. It was his father's middle name and the maiden name of his great-great aunt. (photo: Reed)

Just a little side note about the pictures I took of Read.  While I was shooting the photos, a guy nearby overheard my disgust in not being able to get the correct lighting for the shot.  Sven, originally from Sweden, kindly came over and leant me a hand getting my aperture and shutter speed set better to accommodate the dwindling light.  Thanks Sven…that’s what it’s all about – helping one another!

By the way, I walked back by where Garrett was supposed to be until 10:00pm a good hour before that time and he was already gone.  🙂

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Day 246 – Freakshow

Posted in Cigarettes, Refusals, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on September 1, 2010| 4 Comments »

Knox gets his first customer of the day (photo: Reed)

Yesterday was a great day.  I ran into my very first recipient for the first time since we met on December 15, 2009.  I embarked on this journey 259 days ago when I placed $10 in the hands of a man named Knox who was shinning shoes on a bitter cold afternoon on the corner of 21st and P Streets.  I walked by him yesterday and I wasn’t sure if it was him, so I asked.  “Yeah that’s me,” he said.  He remembered meeting me too.  We talked and I got his phone number so that I can invite him to the year-end party.  “I’m gonna be there,” he assured me.  He also offered me a free shoe shine which I politely declined.   It made my day to see Knox again!  Here is an updated picture of him.

Knox, the Year of Giving's first recipient! (photo: Reed)

I am about two weeks behind writing up the blogs…so today’s recipient is from Day 246.  I was in the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC when I realized I was close to the restaurant Social.  You might remember I visited this place on Day 84.  It’s a cool place that is hard to categorize.  I called it a restaurant, but it is rather chameleon like.  It is a restaurant, bar, lounge, living room…it is what you are looking for.  I ended up talking to some people sitting outside on their patio.  I offered a woman there the $10 but she refused.  Then a guy at the table suggested that I give the $10 to the next person that walked by.  Well, I was thinking that it might be difficult to get someone to stop and talk to me since it was almost midnight.

About 100 yards away we spotted a guy walking and when he got close I asked him to accept my $10, but he declined.  I sat back down and enjoyed one of the tasty beers they have at Social.  About five minutes later we spotted someone else approaching the patio.  One of the guys at my table said, “Oh my gosh, you may want to skip this guy,” because the man who was walking toward us had fluorescent blue hair, eyebrows and goatee.  When I saw him, I wasn’t discouraged, in fact, I knew that he was the one.

Freakshow isn't so freaky, he's actually a really nice guy (photo: Reed)

Somehow I wasn’t surprised when the 45-year-old Altoona, PA native told me, “They call me Freakshow.  I’m a DJ.”  He’s been mixing high energy music for several years here in DC creating a music genre that he calls “funky junk.”

I had to ask him about his color choice for his hair.  “It’s always changing; from leopard prints to zebra stripes, to an American flag mohawk.” (I’m back to using the word mohawk on my blog!)  He channels his creativity in many other ways too.

Freakshow is a flower designer and a re-creation artist; someone who takes “something that is considered to have outlived its useful purpose and give it one last chance at being worthwhile.”

He told me about one of his artworks that got a considerable amount of attention from his neighbors.  He decided to reuse his downspouts in a new and creative way.  Check out these photos from the Prince of Petworth’s website.

Freakshow's downspout art (photo: Reed)

"Creativity takes courage" -Henri Matisse (photo: Reed)

Like or dislike his creation, it does get a reaction.  It generated 90+ comments on the August 9th Prince of Petworth blog post.  Freakshow himself even chimed in to explain himself.  I personally don’t care much for the result of his new arrangement of the downspouts, but I get what he was doing and what I like even more about it was what he said about how his experiment triggered social interaction within his community.  “I in the past two weeks have had the opportunity to meet more of my neighbors than in the two years I have lived at this residence. I have made friend and foe but I have lived an experience that allowed me to see and grow, to realize how people can be so utterly judgmental of another person’s vision. I never claimed beauty or functionality I only took a moment to look at life from a different perspective and my god it was a journey.”

"It's always changing." Freakshow commenting on his hairstyle (photo: Reed)

By the way, Freakshow told me the whole creation was held in place by three screws and some duct tape.  I may be wrong, but I believe that he has since removed the downspout.  He wrote in the blog post comment that he envisioned replacing it with a brick patio, flower-cart and bench that hopefully won’t offend his neighbors.

So I bet you are wondering what this guy did with my ten bucks right?  More duct tape perhaps?  Nope, he joins previous recipients Matt and Isaac in using my $10 to purchase cigarettes.

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