The Eclipse Project: Helping Harrisburg's Homeless

Volunteers please check in for tomorrow...
We are still looking for donations of prepared food for tomorrow. My father's celebration of life is today so I will not be in the kitchen. That means everything has to be made tomorrow and if a few people could donate some casseroles or salad or a veg or a dessert, every dish donated is one less we have to prepare tomorrow. We will be in the kitchen from 11:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. Sunday. Donations can be dropped off at 1605 Parkway West at Bethany Church of the Nazarene.

We need clamshell to go containers for this weekend if anyone is able to donate. We used 125 last weekend. ❤️

Well, I'm way late this week. My life is a little upside down right now and that's my excuse. My dad's service is this Saturday so I'm hoping you kind souls will help us out one more week. If anyone is able to donate a prepared dish for our differently sheltered friends, please let me know. We are at the church every Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. prepping food. If it comes to us hot, you can bring it anytime. If it needs to be heated, please have it to us by 1:00 p.m. 1605 Parkway West is the address. That's Bethany Church of the Nazarene behind Stauffers of Kissel Hill on linglestown Road. We serve about 100 to 120 people every week.

I couldn't possibly list every food item or every person who helped this past weekend. So many people stepped up to help and brought casseroles, cut up fruit, vegetables, sandwiches.

Thank you to every single person who participated in any way in pulling off the meal this past week.

If you can help provide a dish or volunteer this weekend, thank you in advance. I actually had a chance to sit down while we were serving our second stop because I had plenty of volunteers. I lost my hero, my dad, almost 2 weeks ago. The very next morning, my mother fell and broke a couple ribs and she's in a rehab hospital in Danville. Then my son was in the ER for breathing treatment. I smashed the front of my car. Enough, thank you! I go back and forth between being numb and being devastated. Every casserole or dish donated takes the burden off of me.

Please keep my family, and our differently sheltered friends who have been so sweet and supportive of me through this, in your prayers. ❤️

I had to jump on here today and give my team big love. I'm also grateful for those who dropped off prepared food to lighten the load for us this week, but my team got together and got me flowers and presents and cards and took up a collection and I was tickled. Everybody sang happy birthday to me and the hugs were extra special this week. Couple of our friends hugged me and offered condolences on my father's passing and we cried together. Thank you. From the bottom of my heart and from the heart of my bottom. This outreach has given me more than I could ever hope to give others. There's a verse about casting your bread upon the water...
My sincere gratitude to my amazing volunteers. ❤️

Volunteers for this weekend please check in.
Jerry and Emma all day.
Sarah, Tony, Ana, Carol kitchen 11-2
Sue, Chelsea, Amy serving 2:30-5:30
Danielle serving and cleanup
Bob kitchen until noon, cleanup
Need clean up help and a couple more servers.

My life is going to be very busy for the next few weeks. I'm going to be spending time up north with my family after my dad's passing. My mom also just went from a hospital to a physical rehabilitation facility. If anyone would like to lighten our load and donate some prepared casseroles over the next couple weekends for our differently sheltered friends, it would be greatly appreciated.

Brief post alert: though the words might be fewer, the sentiment is overwhelming. I have such a great team of people. I am afraid I'm going to miss someone if I try to mention everyone by name. But let me give you the situation. My dad passed away very recently and I found out at 1:00 in the morning on Sunday. I barely slept 3 hours Saturday night and that was only out of sheer exhaustion. There was a storm Saturday night that knocked the power out to the church. My mom fell Sunday morning, cracked a couple ribs, and fractured a vertebrae and is in the hospital. Sunday morning, however, I sent my team a message and said there's no power at the church and immediately was reminded that we had gas stoves and my volunteers were on their way. We were doing this. I am so proud of my team of volunteers. Some brought lanterns and headlamps. Some took food home to prepare it. Thank God for gas ovens. Thank God for people who donated hot food. Thank God for everything working out. I stayed until the food was all prepared and they were just about ready to leave and then left to go up north to be with my family. What happens in my life doesn't have any bearing on the fact that there are 100 hungry people expecting good food on Sunday afternoon. It would have been easy for some to say today is canceled. Too many things against us. But no, not my Eclipse family.

Usually I tell you what food we served and who helped and I try to mention as many people by name as I can. But my brain is like scrambled eggs today more than usual and I am so afraid I would leave something or someone out.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who makes this possible every week. I have met so many amazing people through doing this who have become my family and I cherish every one of you.

If you are sending me this message, I am not able to respond. Please text me at 570-394-0309. Thank you.

Sunday's volunteer check in:
Jerry
Tosh all day
Carol, Trish, Sarah and Kathy in the kitchen
Aunt Ash In the kitchen and serving first stop
Alexa, Cas, Eric, Amy serving
Danielle serving and cleanup
Molly cleanup
Beth potentially kitchen and serve
Sue serving maybe
We will happily take more people for any of the portions of the day but we definitely need a couple more cleanup people!

This is why I do what I do. Our second stop is a transitional center and one of our guys left the center today to go halfway across the country and meet the family he didn't know he had. I picked up a suitcase for him at a thrift store last week and he was thrilled to have it to take on the 3-day bus trip.

We had fruit salad a few weeks back with Tajin on it and he loved it. Someone asked if he'd ever had it before and he said, "I was in prison for 20 years. I don't know what a lot of things are." So, I got him a bottle of Tajin for his trip!

Please pray for his safe travels and for the future he has laid out before him.