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Homeless, hungry well fed at center
By LINDA GIBSON © St. Petersburg Times, published November 24, 2000 TAMPA -- It might have been just another loud party in Ybor City. A band blasted amplified rock from the front porch of the bungalow at 2215 E 4th Ave. In the street out front, a group of kids practiced break dancing, while dozens of adults mingled in the yard. But this was Thanksgiving Day at the Tampa Bay Dream Center, and many of the guests were homeless adults or neighborhood residents who stopped by for a free turkey dinner. Behind the house, they could pick through donated clothes for items they might need. Inside, they could get a free hair cut at the impromptu barber shop set up in what had been a dining room. The Dream Center was one of four locations where Metropolitan Ministries served Thanksgiving meals Thursday to the homeless and the needy. Along with the food, they got prayers, preaching and music. Some brought their dogs, who also got fed. The residents of the Dream Center, six youths who just got out of high school, delivered holiday dinners to elderly people around the neighborhood, including Albert Walker, 82. He sat facing the street behind a chain-link fence, his chair planted in the patchy grass in front of his home a block from the center. Despite his age and his arthritis, he still picks oranges and takes day labor jobs to keep going. He said the twice-daily meal deliveries from the Dream Center are very welcome. The youths also stopped at the home of Robert Chandler, 73, who said he has had 10 operations. "That's a lot of cuttin'," he said. His neighbor around the corner, 64-year-old Margarite Weldon, is undergoing chemotherapy for her third bout with breast cancer. She gave each of the volunteers a big hug. "Instead of going to college, we decided to go out and make a difference," said Leanna Orlando, 18. "We have really good lives," said David Craver, 19. "We kind of owe these people something." Orlando, Craver and four others moved three months ago into what had been a crack house. They worked on it until it was livable. Their aim is to evangelize in the neighborhood. Each works at a night job, pays $50 a week for household expenses and spends the day looking for ways to demonstrate his faith through service to their neighbors. By knocking on doors, they already have compiled a clientele of 50 to whom they deliver donated meals twice daily. Metropolitan Ministries prepares the meals and delivers them to the Mission for Jesus at 2715 16th Street, where Orlando and the others pick them up before distributing them. After handing over a box dinner of turkey, dressing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans and cranberry sauce to Weldon, they asked if she would like to pray. She would, she said. "Lord, take care of Margarite and send her your best blessings," said James Ryan, 20, while he, Orlando and 18-year-old Rakel Kallenborn held hands with her in a circle. "She's worked hard for you for a long time." -- Linda Gibson can be reached at (813) 226-3382 or gibson@sptimes.com.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
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