Dear friends,

All the holiday celebrations and special festivities happening around St. Anthony’s these days remind me that another year is coming to an end and a new year is about to begin. I’m very excited and filled with hope about these months that lie ahead. We’ll be moving into our new building in May; we’ll be serving more people in our expanded clinic; we’ll be moving ahead with the construction of a new Dining Room. As this year ends, I invite you to help all these great things begin by making a donation to St. Anthony Foundation. You’ll be helping us begin a new year of hope and helping our guests begin new lives.

God Bless You,
Fr. John Hardin, OFM
St. Anthony Foundation

To hear Fr. John speak about hunger in the Bay Area on KQED’s forum, click here.

Last week St. Anthony Foundation and AT&T Cingular offered an amazing gift to guests and clients-a chance to re-connect with their loved ones anywhere in the world through a mobile call center. Volunteers were on hand for those who needed assistance in connecting with their friends and families.

“I called my momma in St. Louis, Missouri! I haven’t talked to her in seven years!” joyfully cried one guest.

Connecting people to programs and services that can help them escape the powerful hold of poverty is what we do best at St. Anthony Foundation. We know that re-connecting with family and friends is one of the most nourishing things a person can do when they are trapped in the isolation of poverty or homelessness. Thank you AT&T Cingular for helping to make that happen!

To learn more about Corporate Volunteering at St. Anthony Foundation, click here.

Last Saturday, St. Anthony’s, SF Connect, Network Ministries, and Reliatech hosted a Tenderloin Technology Day at St. Anthony Foundation. The energy in the room was electric, as volunteer computer technicians helped to repair computers, as well as to tutor new computer users in navigating the Internet and other applications. It was a real-time exercise in shrinking the Digital Divide in an area where computer literacy is so essential to connecting to employment and other resources.

Ed. Note: This was written by a 10-year old boy who helped at our Curbside Donation last year. We think his first hand account of different ways to reach out to your community to extend your blessings during the holidays is stronger than any request we could make. We encourage you to invite your family, employers, your friends and acquaintances to participate in your holiday sharing efforts. There are so many that need your help—with a coat, a meal, clean socks, or a new toothbrush—and so many that want to give but don’t know where to begin. If you want some help in helping, please call 415-241-2700.

When I went to take in donations at St. Anthony’s, a few children had very special ways of getting donations. I will tell you about them.

One girl had her parents give her trash cans and put them at the fire station and the library. She would put a sign on each trash can saying, “Please put clothes in it.” After each day she went to the library and fire station to see what she had gotten. Then finally when the day came to drop them off, she had coats, socks, and shirts galore.

The next girl dropped off canned goods that were very heavy, (I was the one carrying it,) because of all the things she brought. What this girl did was she made flyers and handed them out to her neighbors and nailed them up against poles. On the sign it said bring them to this address, (I don’t know her address.) After the drive she took all the “profits” and put them in a cart and brought them to St. Anthony’s.

This boy collected bottles and cans around his neighborhood and took them back to his house. He exchanged them for $150. He and his family dropped off the money at St. Anthony’s. After I did the math, he gave money for 420 meals. Some of the people who work at St. Anthony’s said that last year he brought $100 and he said that next year he’s going to bring $200.

Think about all the people who are less fortunate than you are and any day, especially the holidays, to make a fund raiser to get food, clothes, or anything that will help. They need you.

Curbside Donation Program
We will be hosting our annual Curbside Donation Program from December 15-18 and December 22-23. Staff and volunteers in red jackets will be on had to accept donations of food, clothing, toiletries, and monetary contributions and issue receipts at 121 Golden Gate Avenue. Please call (415) 241-2700 for more information.

Every weekday, a line of mothers, children, day laborers, and other people without health insurance stretches down Golden Gate Avenue. They are seeking medical care at St. Anthony Free Medical Clinic for everything from colds to chest pain. Unfortunately, because of lack of space, the Free Medical Clinic is forced to turn away an average of 200 patients each month.More people than ever before have been coming to St. Anthony’s for help over the past decade. We now have the opportunity to help more people, allowing us to provide increased opportunities for transformation and greater self-sufficiency.

Multiplying Hope and Dignity

As the sounds of pounding hammers and towering cranes fill the air on our block, there is growing excitement about the construction of our new building at 150 Golden Gate Avenue. This facility will soon allow us to heal more people, help more people find jobs, and better assist families and individuals in crisis. Construction should be completed by Summer 2008 on the new, expanded home for our Free Medical Clinic, Employment Program and Learning Center, Social Work Center, and administrative offices.

“For more than half a century, we’ve helped the poorest of the poor with food, medical care, and assistance finding a job,” says Executive Director Fr. John Hardin, OFM. “We are truly grateful to partner with so many in the community to be able to multiply hope and dignity.”

Thanks to the great generosity of a number of individuals, foundations, and corporations, we have raised $16 million towards the $22 million needed to complete the new building at 150 Golden Gate Avenue. We are excited by our progress so far, but need to keep moving in order to open the doors next summer.

Green Design

In keeping with our values of living in harmony with all creation, our new building will use “green” materials and design. Our contractors are recycling glass, plastic, wood, and metal during the construction process. Whenever possible, we are using locally produced building materials with recycled content, and low-emitting paints, carpets, and sealants that will help support the health of all our guests, volunteers, and staff.

Also, the building will conserve resources. We will install low-flow plumbing fixtures and efficient heating, cooling, and lighting systems. The building is designed to be 33% more energy-efficient than the baseline required by California law. We are one of the first human service agencies in San Francisco to seek certification through the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, a nationally recognized standard in ecologically sustainable design.

To learn more about the campaign and how you can get involved, call (415) 592-2707. You are cordially invited to share your time, talent, and treasure to “Multiply Hope and Dignity” in your community!

The Employment Program and Learning Center lifted Leroy’s spirits and confidence, giving him the personalized attention and support to strive towards new goals.

A person should always feel grateful and be thankful for what he or she receives or gets. I am always grateful, I am grateful for the all the people that are sticking with me, like Leigh. I am very grateful.”

Leigh is an Education Program Coordinator in the Employment Program and Learning Center (EPLC) at St. Anthony Foundation. Clients at the EPLC attend an orientation and are then assigned a staff advisor, who supports them in addressing their educational and vocational needs. In this encouraging and collaborative environment, guests develop the confidence and framework to pursue their goals. Leigh and Leroy have been meeting once a week for over a year to work on his reading skills. With Leigh, Leroy read his first book, cover to cover. He was so inspired that he went to the library to get a library card.

“When I got my library card I thought that was great, I was happy. We talked about it; I was very excited when I told her I got it. I would have never went in there myself. I never thought about me sitting down at a computer, or looking at a book or grabbing a table and sitting down to look at it.”

If Leroy served you a coffee at the café he works at part time, you might not realize that he hears voices sometimes. That he has served time in prison. That he is learning to read. Leroy has worked hard to reconnect to a community that offers help and hope. His humbly striving demeanor is occasionally further sweetened with a shy and complicit smile, as though he is not sure that you really “get” him, but he is willing to take the risk.

“I am very—I won’t say fortunate—but I’m blessed in many ways because after I did a couple years in prison I came back here. I said to myself no more mistakes, get focused, stay focused, keep my eyes with me, and just try to make it.”

“Since I’ve been here at St. Anthony I have seen nothing but love, appreciation, kindness, and people that really want to teach you or give you the opportunity. I walked on the streets here for about 15 days when I came here in this area. I tried to get on GA but they turned me down because I had just gotten here, and they said I had to be in the city for 15 days before they could help me, and that put me on the streets for 15 days.”

“I just walked in and became a part of it, it’s a beautiful thing. I got to know people, tried to do some volunteering in the Dining Room, went to the social workers and got help with my IDs and everything. I had my psychologist there and my therapist there. I’ve been to the clinic. That was very good; they care a lot. I’m on Medicare now, but I still go in there just to say hi and everything, because I became close to them.”

Leroy appreciates many of the programs at St. Anthony Foundation, but he especially appreciates the Employment Program and Learning Center. He has seen other guests of EPLC work on reading, math, getting their GED, and receiving computer training.

“I look forward to coming here every Tuesday to see Leigh; I am reading much better.”

He plans on going to the library again next week.

“My card is good for a year; I just got it renewed. I keep up with it.” he says with certainty.

Share your gifts with your homeless neighbors — give to St. Anthony Foundation. Call (415) 241-2600 or click here to learn more.

If you would like to be added to the St. Anthony Spirit newsletter mailing list, please call (415) 592-2738 or e-mail info@stanthonysf.org.

When I see the thousands of homeless and working poor sharing a meal each day, the parents and their children receiving care in our medical clinic, and the folks gaining computer skills in our Learning Center, I can’t help but feel that a truly great thing is happening here in the Tenderloin.

But then I reflect on a smile or a story shared by one our guests and I am reminded that true greatness is found in those stretching themselves to seek help.

Great courage and strength of character are required of those who struggle to overcome the isolation and the frustrations of homelessness. Regardless of what obstacles they face, our guests must first and foremost rediscover their own dignity and worth. Sometimes we see it when they can’t, and we nurture it back to life despite the hunger, the failure or the sickness. Sometimes they help us recognize their potential when it’s difficult for us to see.

Our founding vision and core beliefs are rooted in our commitment to meet the poor where they are. St. Anthony’s exists because Fr. Alfred Boedekker, our founder, spent time listening to the World War II vets who were “down on their luck.” Today our elaborate network of social service programs answers the need of our homeless neighbors primarily because we’re willing to sit at the table with them and listen to their stories.

We share with you these stories because more than all the statistical reports, outcome analyses or auditors’ statements, they let you know how your generosity is transforming lives. If we listen closely to these accounts, we hear how transformation leads to gratitude and gratitude leads to a desire to give back. In this way our guests who benefit from our services aren’t that different from our donors. I can’t count the times that generous donors have explained their gift as an expression of gratitude for graces received in their own lives—from the simple thanks to St. Anthony for a lost item found to the deep gratitude for an experience or a person who’s changed their life.

The lives of our guests speak to me of courage, persistence and gratitude. Their stories ignite that desire within each of us to be transformed.

With gratitude,
Fr. John Hardin, OFM