In 1985 Senia saw an article in the Sacramento Bee about an organization in Sacramento collecting coats to give away to the homeless. We loved the idea, knew it was needed here and thought that maybe the Daily News, (where she worked) could do something like that.
ENTER: Coat drive We set about making plans. The publisher at the time, Mel Wagner was very much in favor of the idea and even contributed some money towards the event. He gave us permission to invite the community to bring coats and blankets to the Daily News; Senia worked as a pressman and plate room tech. We were given an area in the storage room to store donations.
We began to run ads in the newspaper and create flyers (printed on our old dot-matrix printer) to get the word out. We put the flyers everywhere –in Laundromats and places where folks gathered. The response from the community was overwhelming. Coats and blankets began pouring in.
The first few years, we held the give-away at the city park outside on the lawn. The second year, we added soup in order to offer a hot meal as well. We were able to plug into power from the back of the Hong Kong Restaurant (which was next to the park) to heat up our hot plate, (the owners were neighbors of ours).
We had much to learn regarding how to get the word out and how to build trust with the homeless population. They are a cautious lot. Folks didn’t flock to the event in as large of numbers as we anticipated. The first year, only 5 or 6 folks came by, but we figured that was a few more that would be better off. We knew the homeless were at the park because we played volleyball there on the weekends.
We made some mistakes right off. We thought that people would be grateful for anything, but we quickly learned that even those with no homes had standards. Also, we had to learn to be careful about getting translations right when making bilingual flyers. Someone volunteered to translate one of our flyers from English to Spanish, but the way it was worded was an insult to Spanish speaking people. Yikes!
This project was quite a family affair. Our three children were integral parts of the annual event – there was a lot to do, and they did a bit of everything. When our children got old enough they would go with Wayne to the homeless camps to help spread the word.
One year (about the third), we had so much left over, we held a second giveaway in the old PG&E building on Main St. We only did that once.
Finally, we smartened up and asked the Chamber of Commerce if they would donate the use of their old marina building which was located at the park and included a tiny kitchen area.
There was an outside eating area adjacent to the marina building, and we stretched tarps out over the picnic tables to protect from the rain while we served lunch. Folks slowly started to come around. They finally began to trust that we were trying to make a difference. First we were focused solely on helping the folks in and around the parks.
Every year we got a little more organized, and added more ideas. In the beginning, we only wanted coats, blankets, gloves and scarves. As time went by, we realized we needed to expand and began accepting everything folks brought to us. We were amazed at all the stuff that was donated, (one year, someone even brought a new toilet seat).
ENTER: St. Elizabeth Hospital At first, we bought the biggest cans of chicken noodle soup we could find. As the need grew larger, we would send our kids to the store over and over to get more soup. We needed help. Wayne went out to St. Elizabeth Hospital and talked to the person in charge of the kitchen. He loved the idea and agreed to provide a large pot of homemade soup – it was a huge pot. We asked for enough to feed 20-25, and we were given enough for 100 people. Wayne was very grateful. That was the beginning of a very long love affair that continues on today with Chef Scott and his staff.
With contributions from various department heads at the newspaper, we added crackers, raisins, apples and other items that could easily be carried in a pocket for later.
The raisins came in those tiny boxes, and I had this great idea to teach the little ones how to make a whistle out of an empty raisin box. Soon there were children everywhere running around with ‘raisin box whistles’. What I didn’t know at the time was they had quickly learned to open the box; dump out the raisins and off they’d go with their new toy.
ENTER: Recycle The Warmth At first, we didn’t have a name. We never thought about it. We didn’t know how to say what we were. We just said to people who attended, “Come back to the park next year and we’ll give you warm clothes and hot food.” We needed a name. The newspaper article had said something about recycling clothes, and we combined that with the warmth factor and landed on Recycle The Warmth, which really summed up what we thought we were doing.
As we became more established and people heard about what we were doing, folks would stop by the house and the Daily News to drop off bowls, cups, napkins, plastic spoons. We would come home and find items stacked on our porch. We came to expect that our dining room would fill up every year with things for Recycle The Warmth.
ENTER: Boxes As the awareness of the event grew, we started getting calls from schools and business asking for boxes to collect items in for us. My Dad had a van, so it became his job to deliver and pick up items from the boxes. We also offered home pick-ups, and this also became a part of Dad’s route duties. We placed a large box in the front of the Daily News so that when someone brought in donations they would have somewhere to deposit the items.
ENTER: God In 1994, God surprised our family with salvation and our entire family was miraculously saved. Suddenly, Recycle The Warmth took on a new dimension – spiritual! We changed from a Compassionate Care project, to a Compassionate Care ministry.
The change became too much for some of the current volunteers, and we lost most of the worker bees from the paper, but new workers would join us every year. We came to realize our annual project held an additional purpose.
Christians can be compassionate without the ability to express their compassion. Not everyone can begin a compassion ministry, in fact, life is so busy it’s hard to find any extra time to join a cause or make a long-term commitment to any organization.
But with Recycle The Warmth, the commitment can be as tiny or as large as what the person has to offer. It’s a safe place to make a difference. Folks can come and bring any talent or idea they have: Pray, witness, fold clothes, serve food, clean up…..a never ending list of opportunities.
In James 2: 14, the question is asked, “What use is it, by brethren, if a man says he has faith, but he has no works? Can that faith save him?”
It goes on to say in v 15 & 16, “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?”
We provide others with the opportunity to live James 2:18, “But someone may well say, you have faith, and I have works; show me you faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (emphasis mine)
ENTER: Migrant Ed About 1996, someone backed up a pickup at the marina and a lady jumped out and began giving orders to everyone - (real bossy). Rose (Galvin) Cardenas, worked with the migrant field workers population who lived and worked with less than wonderful circumstances in camps around the fields and orchards. She brought some of her clients because she had heard that we had blankets. She saw we weren’t giving the blankets out in a smart way due to our inability to communicate, so she began helping us.
She and Wayne argued a lot, and Wayne wasn’t happy at first, but a few days later, the Lord told Wayne that He had sent Rose to us, and that she was going to be a part of our team. Wayne realized she had something to offer that we didn’t have – we increased our circle of ‘clientele’.
Over time, the migrant, Hispanic population became a larger percentage of those whom we served. That was the beginning of a very long love affair that continues on today with Rose, who is an integral part of our team.
ENTER: Bethel (Red Bluff) The very next year, Pastor Ron Fortenberry, who was at that time the lead Pastor of Bethel Assembly in Red Bluff, invited us to bring our ministry inside – to the church. We discovered the joy of ‘clothing racks’; created by using stepladders, metal poles and duct tape. Every year, we would overload them and they’d fall over and would learn better ways to stabilize them. One day, Wal-Mart called and offered us some old clothing racks. They were wonderful.
We installed Senia's parents by each door as ‘official counters’; at the time, her Mama worked at the hospital as a Med. Tech and she brought her ‘clicker’ that she used to count blood cells.
Pastor Ron was a great friend to Recycle The Warmth, he gave us the use of the church secretary and a copy machine. That was the beginning of a very long love affair that continues on today with Ron Fortenberry.
ENTER: Children’s Entertainment Over the next years we asked for help from folks to entertain the children while the parents ‘shopped’. Over the years we’ve had clowns who made balloon animals, TV: Vegi-Tales, even Sister Gloria, Catholic Nun who did a mime act. A few of my Sunday School girls even learned how to do balloon animals to help entertain the kids.
ENTER: Better food We had grown to the point where we were feeding over 200 people, we reached a point where we needed additional sources for food. We asked Judy Mandolfo to join us along with the Mandolfo family, who are caterers. They took on the ‘food ministry’ aspect of RecycleThe Warmth and the meals took on a whole new ‘flavor’. That was the beginning of a very long love affair that continues on today with the whole Mandolfo family.
Pastor Fortenberry had a friend, Chris Patterson who worked in the kitchen of the Sherriff’s Dept who made dozens and dozens of cookies for us – we call her the ‘Cookie Lady’. When we later moved to the gym, Chris and her husband and two grandsons switched up from baking cookies to rolls and sticky buns.
That began a very long love affair with the Mandolfo’s Catering and the Patterson family that continues to this day.
ENTER: Improvements Rose was the one who introduced people who were ‘folders’ and ‘sorters’. We began setting up the night before – which made the morning of the event so much easier to start up.
The day of the event is always fun. People in need would line up around the corner waiting for the doors to open at 8 a.m.
I always enjoy standing by the door as they enter and hand out garbage sacks to fill with clothing. It’s fun to watch their eyes get huge when they see all the tables and racks of clothing and realize they can take whatever they want – all for free! Wayne always enjoys walking outside before we open and just talk to people.
We’ve had very few problems over the years. There were a few times we would have to have a talk with someone, or in a couple of extreme cases, ask someone to leave, but mostly people are so grateful for the food and clothes, they don’t cause much trouble.
ENTER: Bethel Gym In September of 2007, Bethel’s Gym was completed – just in time for Recycle The Warmth in November. By that time, we had settled on the first Saturday of November each year for consistency.
We moved into the gym and WOW! So much room! We were really able to spread out and display all the items wonderfully. We had established an area we could block off and assign a person for blanket distribution so that everyone was able to get at least one blanket a piece.
We finally had a large area for the meals, and one for the children’s section. More and more clothing and other items continued to pour in, and setting up the day before became even more necessary. We had an established policy that the workers were worth their wages, so anyone who came the day before to help with set-up was free to take whatever they found.
We knew we’d been doing this a while when during one event a few years ago, a young Mom came up to Wayne and proudly showed him here little daughter, she had asked him if he remembered her Wayne could tell from her eyes that he was supposed to remember her and Wayne said yes (maybe) she immediately began recounting the story of how he made her a balloon hat and gave her treats and took a picture of her and she never forgot how much fun she had that day. Her parents moved away and that she was now living in Red Bluff again and couldn’t wait to come and bring her daughter.
That was the year we realized we had made a difference and had impacted an entire generation.
ENTER: First 5 Tehama About that time, we incorporated our first agency. Michelle Roesera during the previous year attended the event and realized right away that it would be beneficial to the families who attended if she set up a table in order to give out info and goodies regarding First 5 Tehama.
ENTER: Gail Locke and the Agencies About that same time, Ron Fortenberry was attending a Continuum of Care group. His plate got too full, and so he asked Wayne if he’d attend. Wayne attended until his plate got too full, and Senia began to attend.
Gail Locke was the chairman of the meetings. She thought we could offer more to the community if we invited other agencies and businesses to join First 5 in setting up tables around the perimeter of the gym.
She took on the responsibility of putting it all together, even having laminated signs with the agencies’ names created for the wall to hang above each table. So the next year, we had an additional dozen agencies join us.
Incorporating Gail’s ideas improved Recycle The Warmth significantly and the numbers of folks we were able to help began to increase. That was the beginning of a long love affair that continues on today with Gail, who has become a permanent part of Recycle The Warmth.
ENTER: Project Homeless Connect Wayne and I became actively involved in the Continuum of Care. We had seen what they did for the community and knew we wanted to be a part of this organization.
Gail Locke attended the first Shasta County Project Homeless Connect, as well as the Veterans Stand Down. She realized there was defiantly a need for this very same thing in Tehama County.
Through PATH (The Poor And The Homeless), and the TC Community Action Agency, funding was secured for putting together our own Project Homeless Connect at the fairgrounds in the spring of 2010.
Because we (at this point), had 24 years experience with Recycle The Warmth, this sort of project was something we understood well. Both projects are compassionate care based, but Project Homeless Connect leaned more toward medical and government agencies and Recycle The Warmth focused more on seeing that basic needs were adequately met for the winter season.
The first Project Homeless Connect was held on May 5, 2010. It went as well as a first year project could be expected – many were helped, we learned a lot and used what we learned to make the second one, held in March 2011 even better.
The first two Project Homeless Connect events taught us a lot about logistics of putting on a large event at the fairgrounds and we had so much fun.
ENTER: LIFT Tehama We all realized that the fall was a better time to hold Project Homeless Connect, but the thought of holding two major events so close together was a bit overwhelming, and so Senia and I had made a decision to float the idea of incorporating our Recycle The Warmth with Project Homeless Connect. We made the suggestion at a Continuum of Care meeting in 2011, the idea was well received.
Even though Recycle The Warmth continued to keep its flavor, we were now a part of a much greater organization. During the planning period, we had difficulties with the nomenclature of our event. It wasn’t just Project Homeless Connect, or Recycle The Warmth - we didn’t know what to call ourselves. We made a decision amongst ourselves to come up with a new name. We searched for an umbrella name to help us describe who we were even through times of growth and change while still preserving our own project names and function. We finally landed on LIFT Tehama an acronym of sorts for ‘Live Inspired For Tomorrow’.
The change was greater than just a new name, for us it was also a new place, day and time the sum was now greater than its parts. Publicity regarding the changes to educate the hundreds and hundreds of clients we had served every year became a major challenge.
Personal When we began this project, Wayne worked in the ‘Garbage business’, and was still a Drill Sergeant in the Army Reserves. He was ready to make a change, so he began to work part-time at Bethel church in Red Bluff.
Senia began as an inserter for the Daily News, and then had moved onto the Camera/Press Dept.
Over the course of time, Wayne became full time maintenance man at Bethel and is now a licensed Minister with the Assembly of God.
Senia moved from the Camera/Press to the Online Dept (a department of 1).
Looking back when we were in transition from strictly secular to a faith based organization, we saw the change in the people who were helping us.
Our motivation for doing this project is predicated on our faith, but even though we are people of God, many of the agencies we partnered with are not necessarily faith based. However, we are all working toward the same goal, and are dedicated to helping the poor – the homeless, helpless and hopeless.
Recycle The Warmth grew over the years due to the fact that every November we showed up. Anyone who knows us knows we don’t have any special skills or abilities, but we held the event every year and invited others to help us. Over the years, we have had many people and organizations join us because they could get involved in something that happened as a one day event.
Besides the Daily News, we have had small mom and pop business owners, up to large corporations join us because they believed in what we were doing and wanted to get involved in something where people could come and do whatever they could do; we offered involvement and a chance for a commitment in whatever they could do.
There are a dozens and dozens of different tasks required for this event to roll out just right, and everyone has different abilities and talents to offer; fold clothes, pray for folks, collect hangers, transport clothes, getting the word out or serve meals, but most importantly this project provides folks an opportunity to live and share their faith.