So, we had a great day in Providence today.
The RIDC Food Truck participated in Providence’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade today, and we had a blast!!!
Take a peek at the crew getting ready while we were waiting for our turn to start – I can’t get enough of these smiles:
I am so proud of this crew. Most of members of this crew was, or still are, homeless. Don’t let that fool you, though, as they are some of the most fun people to be around, and I enjoy every second hanging around with them. Seeing this group doing positive things with their lives totally makes my day! I love being able to give them a chance to be a part of something important.
By the end of the parade, we had even picked up a few more walkers….here’s the whole bunch:
Something else really cool happened – when one of my co-workers found out the Food Truck was going to be in the parade this year, she held a fundraiser at work and hooked us up with over 50 $5 gift cards to Dunkin Donuts and Subway for us to hand out to the homeless that we saw along the parade route. What a blessing it was – we gave all of them away today directly from the truck…pretty cool to be able to treat the homeless to a sub or some nice, fresh coffee – it was awesome being in the parade but actually doing what we do best at the same time…hey, why not take the opportunity to bless some of the homeless along the way!!!! Thanks MG – you are super special and we really appreciate your generosity!!! Check out how nice she made the cards up:
Walking in the parade made all of us feel special. Waving to all the people and having them cheer us on made us feel valued. At the very end of the parade, the announcer on the loudspeaker gave a huge shoutout to the RI Dream Center, yelling into the mic about what a great job we do for the city and how proud he is of us…it really make all of us feel great to be recognized for our hard work. When we were done, the crew was all smiles and all they could talk about was how we could make it even bigger and better next year.
I agree – can’t wait to see where this goes next year!!!!!!!!
Hey, thanks for checking in!!! Happy Thanksgiving!!!
The RIDC is wrapping up another year, and we have sooooo much to be thankful for. This has been a banner year a for the RI Dream Center and we have been given the opportunity to help more people this year than other year.
Today, we partnered with a number of local organizations for the largest Thanksgiving Day dinner we’ve ever been a part of. A full turkey dinner with all the fixings and dessert was provided to RI’s homeless for free in a wonderful event this afternoon.
Many thanks to all the other volunteers who spent time organizing the event, setting up for the big day, driving the buses and picking the homeless up and then dropping them back off where they are staying, cooking all that wonderful food, serving graciously, greeting our guests, cleaning up throughout the event and setting the church back up after the event was over. You did an amazing job.
Thank you, volunteers and sponsors of this event – you made this day possible. Volunteers from the organizations below raised all the donations, did all the cooking, and supplied all the volunteers:
- Praise Tabernacle Church, the host of the event: www.praisetab.com
- St. Michael the Archangel Church: www.stmichaelsprov.org
- St. Patrick Church: www.saintpatrickchurch.net
- 4zero1: twitter.com/4zero1
- Thirsty Beaver Hometown Pub & Grub: www.thirstybeaverri.com
- Vanity Restaurant: www.vanityri.com
- Amos House: www.amoshouse.com
- Mary House: www.maryhouseri.org
- McAuley House: www.mcauleyri.org
One guest I met (named Darnell) was so thankful for the meal…with a great big smile he told me, “My plate was so full, I couldn’t fit any more food on it!!! I don’t want any more turkey an entire year! Thanks so much!!!”
Some of our guests sleep at Harrington Hall, a men’s shelter on the ACI campus – Harrington Hall’s roof leaked pretty badly yesterday and into the night last night, and some of the guys told me their beds had gotten wet from the rain – and in this cold weather it makes it so much worse. Apparently, Harrington Hall is partitioned off right now, with fewer open beds than normal. I’m so glad we were able to bring some smiles to some faces today – especially knowing what they went through last night and what they have to look forward to tonight…
Thanks to all. I am truly sorry if I missed saying thanks to anyone…although from what I witnessed today, with so many volunteers coming together as one and acting as one cohesive unit, I’m pretty sure you aren’t worried about getting the proper credit…your satisfaction comes from within!
I know it really warmed the hearts of the volunteers to be able to come together as one group and serve the needy.
Thanks to all who support the RIDC throughout the year. Please remember the churches and non-profits listed above this giving season, and please support those restaurants listed above this holiday season!!!
Hope you have as much fun today with your family as we did with ours!!!
Dream Center Diaries 
