"Caring for the homeless, still a huge problem in our country today..." 'Judith Whitehead' (Inspirational Sunday)

Judith Whitehead lives in Amherst New York

( A suburb of Buffalo, N.Y.)

 and has worked in the ophthalmology
 field of medicine for over 30 years.
James "Kimo" Rosen recently visited Judith and her family!

Judith and SteveWhitehead recently
fed  many friends at their home
for the breaking of the fast for the
Jeiwsh holiday of Yom Kippur....

Caring for the homeless, still a huge problem in our country today

Every year we make an effort to attend the fund raiser in Los Angeles to help the homeless. It is called the Midnight Mission Fundraiser and it reaches out to hundreds of people living in the L.A vicinity for its support and efforts.

Every city has its share of needy, homeless, hungry people.  We see it every day from all walks of life.  It becomes very easy to become homeless even in American, the land of opportunity.

How many in our country are only a pay check away from losing everything.  There seems to be an abundant amount of needy people on the West coast; maybe because the weather is always warm and therefore many are outside in the parks, on the streets and walking amongst us every day.  The city mission and shelter is many blocks long and serves the purpose of not only housing and feeding the people but also leading them on a 12 step recovery program in the community to get them back on their feet. It is an amazing effort and with the help of its many volunteers and benefactors, they are successful in doing just that.

Los Angeles is the home of many wealthy people as well; many actors and famous people along with many philanthropic people live there, among them is my son’s boss who is the proud owner of Norman’s Rare Guitars.  Every year he donates his efforts, time and money to help make this fund raiser a successful one.  I feel lucky that we can join in as a part of this fund raiser  and contribute in a small way.

Homelessness has been around us for many decades and is not a problem that can be easily extinguished.    It takes a village to raise awareness and takes great efforts to   reach  as many people that can be reached, asking them  to give a little  bit of their time and money.  No one chooses to be homeless, to live on the streets,  and to take hand outs.  A city mission is meant to support, train and educate those that need to get back on track.  It takes a lot of bodies and money to make that happen.

Our countries population is growing in leaps, we see other countries  that are filled with poverty, homelessness and hunger.   I do live by the mantra, “it is better to give than receive”,  and we need to start with taking care of our own first.  Our country of “promise and hope” still has many starving and homeless people.    We have driven across the country several times and have seen some of the conditions people still live in this day and age.

There are many ways to contribute that are not monitory.   There are plenty of local food drives, volunteering options,  clothing  drives etc.  Working in the fruit belt region of Buffalo, I see the homeless every day.  It grounds me daily to never take for granted what our family has and reminds me how lucky we are.

Hana Hou, (Encore) more photos from the break the fast!!
All photos taken with my new iphone from cousin Ron!

Lox and all the fixins!

Judith's son Jacob enjoying
a bagel with corned beef and lox...