Today we went and helped sort candy for a holiday party at the Coalition for the Homeless.

Today was the day we took a tour of the Coalition for the Homeless and to help sort toys. It started at 12:55pm. when we left the building to head to the A train. When we got through the turnstiles we went left because we wanted to go downtown to Houston street. So when the train got here we got on and wereheaded for the Coalition for the Homeless.

When we got there we were greeted by Marisa Butler who was going to give us the tour and help us sort toys and candy for the holiday party. First she told us about what they do and what she specifically does. Then after she told us about what the organization does she told us about how they have a crisis center. The crisis center was a room where people could just pop in and get an appointment to talk to someone about how they are about to loose their house or that they don’t have a home anymore because they can’t pay their bills. There was also someone who was also supposed to meet us named Yvonne who is currently homeless, but her family has their own apartment. She is in high school and she got a scholarship to a summer school program at a college to get ready for college, and she said she had an a amazing experience. While she was interviewing us she told us that her family lost money, so now it’s really hard for her family. She told us that the only person who is receiving $700 a month is her brother, so they are living on $700 for each month, total. When she told us about her story I was really fascinated about how she grew up. I thought it was really cool how she was interning here, and she told all of us that she really likes working there. After we interviewed her and asked some questions we went to sorting candy for this holiday party that the organization hosts for the families. So we put little handfuls of candy into the bags to wrap up. When we started, we were told to take out the gum because they weren’t allowed to chew gum since gum usually ends up in places it’s not supposed to be. Afterwards, we went downstairs to help un-box the toys that people sent in. After we did that we put them into big bins and then went upstairs. When we did everything that was needed we started headed back to school. While I was there it was an amazing experience and I really enjoyed helping out because it made me feel good at the end.