When the pandemic hit
I started hiking into my town’s two river bottoms
checking on the homeless people who live there.
My goal was to look for the corona virus before it had a chance to spread
and treat minor injuries to keep everyone out of the ER
until the worst of the pandemic was over.
I had no idea what I was getting into.
Each river bottom is several square miles
covered in a maze of unmarked trails.
I was constantly getting lost.
The individual tents are often hidden inside dense vegetation
full of poison oak.
If someone doesn’t show you the way
you’ll never find them.
And even if you do figure it out
the homeless community is very wary of outsiders.
If they don’t know you
they usually won’t answer.
I tried bringing sandwiches and fruit.
That helped.
But I just didn’t have the time
or money
to prepare dozens of meals each day.
In desperation, I posted a message on my Neighborhood Nextdoor app
asking for help.
The response was overwhelming.
Within three days I had more food than I could carry.
Everything from fresh-baked muffins
to hard boiled eggs.
But I was still spending hours trying to organize dates and deliveries.
That’s when Teri -
one of the people who responded my post –
stepped in.
“One thing I’m good at is organizing and so when it sort of started off
and it was obvious to me it was going to be more than just a few people
I thought that we needed a way for this to be organized.”
She set up an app
and within a week we had over thirty neighbors making 50 meals a day.
They called themselves the Baking Brigade.
And just like that
I was welcome everywhere.
Turns out almost everybody likes homemade brownies.
But I wondered…
What would make a bunch of strangers spend so much time and effort
helping people they’re never going to meet?
“Why am I doing this?
Oh, it gives me a good feeling in my heart.”
“There’s a selfish reason –
because I’ve been extremely frustrated
since I’m a retired nurse and I really haven’t been able to do anything
to really - to put hands on help.
So this way I’m indirectly, through you, helping to get some kind of healthcare
for those that are less fortunate than we are.
“Both of us grew up poor.
Ann particularly.
[Beeper] Laughter.
Okay, so this time the chicken’s coming out!
So having the means to be able to help people –
we never could do that before.
We couldn’t do that when we were kids.”
Paul and Anne went even further.
“So I told our pastor about this.
He was very excited about it.
He said, “Send me the receipt.
We’ll reimburse for the groceries for anybody participating.”
Paul even does the shopping and delivers the ingredients.
Meanwhile, I was getting to know more and more people in the river bottoms
And they were starting to trust me.
"Would a brownie help?"
Their pets?
not so much.
I was realizing what a vibrant community this is
and incredibly generous.
They were constantly giving me gifts.
And I wasn’t always on my own anymore.
Rick, a local engineer, started showing up every weekend with bags of oranges
and hiking in with me.
That wasn’t the only change.
The Baking Brigade’s brownies had morphed into something much… healthier.
“Gluten-free orange quinoa zucchini muffins.
I think the longer this has gone on, which is about five weeks now,
I think everybody’s just like, making things you would make for your family members."
"Voila!"
"We have breakfast burritos.
More and more people are making very, very healthy sandwiches.
It’s really been interesting to watch this transformation of people.”
A lot more was showing up than just muffins and sandwiches.
Socks,
flashlights,
shampoo and lotion,
protein drinks,
and the all-important soap for washing hands
and medical supplies.
That’s when they changed their name
to the Beyond Baking Brigade.
Teri even built a street sign so that everyone would have a proper address.
"Main street! Civilization!
Bringing order to the chaos of the river bottom - at least for a day!"
In late April I started getting a lot of questions about the stimulus checks
so I asked my friends if anyone knew a lawyer who might help.
The next thing I knew
Jennifer showed up.
"...way to maybe get a mobile hot spot so we can connect
all of the residents with the actual database and the form to fill out online."
That was far from her only talent.
She eventually set up shop every week near the entrance to the camps.
“One of my absolute favorite things has been
hearing their aspirations of what they want to do with this check."
Yeah! Come on over!"
“Transportation has been a big one,
fixing up a car because that was a prerequisite for a job they just interviewed for was one that I heard last week."
And definitely a lot of people have said that they want to relocate themselves
and this amount of money would be a way to do that."
"Take off my mask and glasses? Okay."
"Can I put them on my head?"
Back when I first started hiking in
a lot of people warned me that the camps were dangerous
and late one afternoon a tourist did get mugged on a nearby beach.
After that the residents in the river bottom insisted that someone always walk with me.
In truth I was more worried about them.
Outside the camps, the virus was spreading.
Because they have no way to wash their hands
they’re much more likely to get it.
That’s when Rick decided to build them a hand washing station.
He found a recycled container and his friends donated the fixtures.
I asked him why he kept showing up week after week.
“I never thought I would be happy doing it but it’s fun.
And rewarding.
Just getting to know the people.
It’s pretty amazing for people who don’t have much at all – to give so much back.
It was kinda humbling.
I need a wrench.”
And then one day
Melissa
A total stranger
asked if she could join me.
Of course I said yes.
She’s a nurse, and passionate about working with homeless people.
I’ve never seen anyone make friends so fast.
She’s fearless.
Can make anybody laugh.
With a heart big enough to fit every living thing inside.
Once she invited Sean to join us
we never got lost again.
We have so much fun together.
I can’t remember what it was like to do this by myself.
It’s the last thing I expected when this all started –
I’ve made so many friends.
It took a pandemic for me to realize how many extraordinary people live all around me.
“You can’t live your life just for yourself or you’re gonna be kind of miserable.”
“Try it. If it doesn't feel good you're not gonna keep doing it
but I guarantee you that it’s going to feel really good.”
“The thing is, we’re all part of a family
and family looks after family, especially when things are not going well.”
These are my neighbors.
They’ve been here all along –
just waiting for me to take the time to get to know them.