1st Year Avery 7 Years old

Hi Avery, I found your name tag lying face up when I went out to hitch the food trailer to my suburban. With rain and freezing temperatures in the forecast, we thought it was time to take the first collection load to the food pantry.

So early this morning, I pulled into Urban Ministry and backed the trailer up to the loading dock. J.T and Marcus were smiling real big. I wish you could have been with me. We all pitched in and unloaded the trailer, in no time. Good nutritious foods like rice, cereal, beans, spaghetti, canned ham, every kind of soup, canned fruit, baked beans, and even baby food and baby formula. J.T. weighed it all on his scale smiled from ear to ear. "508 pounds," he said, "this is real good, just real good." You can see his picture below.

I just wanted you to know that you were part of something really, really big yesterday. More than making a lot of pretty lights, you became part of a community. Your family (and mine) has never, ever not had food for breakfast, lunch and supper. And we've never not had a safe, warm and happy home with a mom and a dad. And plenty of clean clothes and a beds. Not to mention toys and birthday cakes and fun family vacations.

Not everybody is so lucky: Did you know one out of every four children your age in North Carolina is food insecure? Food insecure is a fancy word for when you don't know where you next meal is coming from and neither does your brother and sister and mom and dad.

So yesterday when we were making Lighted Christmas Balls, meeting new friends and drinking warm apple cider and eating yummy snacks, what was really happening was bigger than making lots of pretty lighted balls. You and your mom and your sister and brother were becoming part of a community. And that's something good and kind and heroic, something precious to God. I would love it if you would take a picture of your lighted Christmas balls and send them to me. And I hope your dad gets all well and you can bring him to the workshop next year.

The community that you and me and 250 of friends get to be part of, we collected canned goods and all that food (and monetary donations) went to help feed a lot of hungry neighbors, some of them the same ages as you and your brother and sister. 

Being a 1st year Avery, 7 years old, is something really, really special. Keep it up, Avery, there's no telling how far you will go and how much good you will do. 

We'll post updates and stories and lots of pretty pictures, so stay tuned! Happy Thanksgiving!

keeping food dry

With rain in the forecast tonight and tomorrow, thought we better clear out the trailer put it in the garage to keep it dry. Tonight's catch included peanut butter, tuna, high protein beans, one canned ham, soups, green beans, collard greens and yams. Also pasta, rice, mac and cheese and big containers of oatmeal.  Thank you, friends of lighted Christmas balls, for coming out on a dreary night and for helping nourish hungry folks. Come back often and bring your friends and show them how easy it is to share with those in need. 

Greensboro's Lighted Christmas Balls glow all the way to Washington, DC

It's two weeks till Daylight Savings time and it's like we're still opening Christmas Presents.

Congressman Howard Coble called last week to thank us for spearheading Shine the Light on Hunger, collecting donations of money and canned food for Greensboro Urban Ministry and Second Harvest Food Bank of NW North Carolina, and last but not least, the beautiful Lighted Christmas Balls. The Congressman is, at heart, a "good finder."

Washington, DC could use some cheer

I've been thinking about Washington lately, how the mood there can turn on a dime, in fact these days, the mood up there is as bleak as bleak can be, what with the threatened shutdown and all. Maybe I should gather our army of volunteers and fill a truckload with Lighted Christmas Balls and go and brighten the place up. Washington could use a dose of hope and cheer. See artist's rendering, to right.

My relationship with the Congressman goes back a few decades and my admiration and respect for this man of integrity is deep. Let me know when Congress wants to host a Lighted Christmas Ball workshop; it would be our privilege.

Thanks Howard; your call the other day was a Surprise Joy.

Shine The Light on Hunger - 3,831 pounds so far - still a ways to go

Gardner Sheffield keeps a close eye on the food collection trailer, the yellow food collection bucket, and the weather.  He called to say that with wintry mix in the forecast, we better empty the trailer, "Why don't I take half the food to Second Harvest Food Bank and half to Urban Ministry?"  With Second Harvest's partner agency demand up 75% this year and Urban Ministry's pantry overflowing at the moment, we made the executive decision to allocate 100% of this trailer load to Second Harvest. 

First the good news.  This installment weighed in at 943 pounds, bringing the Shine the Light on Hunger total so far to 3,831.  As of this moment, the food's been inspected, sorted, and is on its way to needy persons. 

Now the bad news:  nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to get enough to eat.  You can read how America's economic pain has brought on hunger pangs here.   After you finish that, get a copy of the USDA's report on food security (insecurity) in America).  Warning: it's not for the faint of heart, but go on and read it anyway.

In 2007, Friends of Lighted Christmas Balls in Sunset Hills collected 2,976 pounds of food. 

In 2008, we collected 4,000 pounds, up 34%, during a recession I might add. 

This year's goal is 10,000 pounds.  I don't know where we got a goal that's 2 1/2 times what we collected last year, but there it is. 

At 3,831 pounds we're not there yet, and that's where you come in.  We would love for you to gather up all the non-perishable food you can fit in your car, truck or backpack and come see the lights, and donate food here or here.  Tell your family, friends, and co-workers.  If you're retired and your home is a retirement center, fill at least one seat on the bus with non-perishable food.  If you run, get everyone in your running club to grab 2 cans of food and run to the yellow barrel or food collection trailer.  Just come and bring food.  You'll be glad you did. 

The trailer keeps on filling up

Here's a shot taken Sunday night of the trailer at 11pm.  Seeing the trailer and it's companion, the yellow barrel, fill up again and again has been a tremendous joy to each person who's helped redistribute the food to 2nd Harvest Food Bank of NW North Carolina and Greensboro Urban Ministry.  I'm sure each person who's left left a can, box, or bag in one of the collection points has felt the surprise joy of being connected with other persons, even strangers, with a common heart of kindness. 

While it was still daylight, Harold, a person who's worked in Sunset Hills yards for decades, and a man of few words, was out blowing leaves out of the gutter and around the trailer.  I was at the trailer rebalancing boxes and bags of food.  Harold saw me, cut off his leaf blower and peered inside the trailer.  A long pause later he said, "It's a wonderful thing to live in a town where there's so many people who want to do good and share with others." Wish I could say that's been my reaction for all of 2009.  Maybe hearing Horace's pronouncement will help me change that. 

Gardner called this morning as I was leaving for work.  I could hear the smile in his voice. He was already in Winston Salem and had already taken 870 pounds of food to 2nd Harvest.  Christmas Eve, Gardner and his son Daniel and my son in law Johnathan and my son Justin and I took all the food that had piled up, filled his car till the springs started sagging, then put the rest of it in my Suburban.  I told him I was taking what we loaded in my Suburban that night to Urban Ministry.  I did.  It weighed in at 742 pounds.  So far, we've taken 2,888 pounds of food to 2nd Harvest and Urban Ministry.  And the week's just starting. 

I love how The Message translates Proverb 19:17.  It says, “Mercy to the needy is a loan to God, and God pays back those loans in full.

It sure is a wonderful thing to live in a town where so many people who want to show mercy and do good.

788 pounds of non-perishable food given to 2nd Harvest Food Bank of NW North Carolina

It was after dark when I pulled into the driveway Thursday after work. In the distance, just past the trailer, I saw two persons rummaging thru the cans, bottles, boxes and bags that had been slowly accumulating.
I've wondered what I'd do if I encountered someone taking food from the trailer when the idea is to put food in.  (If they asked for my scarf would I give them my coat, too? I'm not so sure.)

Jesus words in Matthew 5 crossed my mind, "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."

I nudged my Suburban around to the front yard only to find Janet Watford and Gardner Sheffield, unloading, sorting, repackaging, and reloading everything into Gardner's car. They were almost done.  I jumped in alongside and we finished in a few minutes.  I didn't tell them I thought they were food rustlers. 

The next day, Gardner drove his food filled car to Winston Salem. With the help of three hard working volunteers (pictured above), a grateful 2nd Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina reported that Sunset Hills Friends of Lighted Christmas Balls had donated 788 pounds of non-perishable food. 

We're still a long way off from our goal of 10,000 pounds.  If you're out touring Greensboro's beautiful Christmas lights, put a friend or two in your car, pack a sackful of non-perishable food, and come find one of the collection sites for food for NC food banks. Thanks.

Shine The Light on Hunger

Everyone else's yard sign is at ground level. You can't miss this one - in a raised pot - it's at eye level. And everyone is asking WHERE DID YOU GET THOSE TERRIFIC SIGNS PRINTED? The answer is - of course- our buddy Matt at Bravo Signs did a dozen of them for us, just for the cause. He is all about shining the light on hunger. He does great work and is fun to work with.

In all truth it's really fun to be in the spot light....

Anne here: late one afternoon last week, Jerry Wolford photographer with News Record, and Wes Beeson dropped by Toad Hall, and found us wrapped up with the big Lighted Christmas ball, a three foot diameter sphere loaded with 1,200 multi-colored mini lights. Jerry took tons of pictures while Jonathan roped Jerry and Wes into helping us into raising the big ball. Once aloft, Jonathan's next task was to Huck Finn our News-Record friends into helping him launch three more pull lines high up in an Oak tree along Ridgeway Drive. That done, we said goodbye, set about lifting a few more Lighted Christmas balls, and had no idea where Jerry's project was going.  We saw a photo on the front page of the paper but didn't go to the website to see the slide show because we were trying to get the house decorated and get closure on some other projects around the house.  

About mid-afternoon, friends Linda and Rod called to invite us over to watch the launching of a Christmas decoration Rod dreamed up (literally).  Fortified with peppermint mochas, Rod, Linda, Jonathan and I fastened seine line, parachute cord, and one pulley to Rod's beautiful star, a five foot high three dimensional, handmade, wrapped in 800 clear mini lights.  Once launched to its full 75 feet (you can see it from Cornwallis Drive and from other points in Irving Park), I called the boys to their reward: Jerry Wolford's multi-media interpretation of the Sunset Hills Lighted Christmas balls. Jerry nailed it, it's about the fellowship, community, and sharing the abundance of our pantries with others.

Come see the lights. Bring food. Bring friends and if our front door is open, stop in.

Food Bank Service Entrance

Jonathan here: We stuck the trailer (see right) in our yard with one wheel on the curb and the other on the lawn, tilted toward Ridgeway Drive. The forecast was for rain, so friend Phil brought over their Harris Teeter tailgate tent and together we popped it up and tied it down with tent stakes. About 5:00am rain set in, so hard it woke me up.  I got up and went outside to check the trailer. Water is the enemy of non-perishable food, especially boxed cereal, rice, and pasta.  The trailer was about half full, and fortunately everything in it was still dry. I found a polypropylene tarp, lashed it over the top and sides, and went back to bed. I was so cold my teeth were rattling. 

As in years past, the majority of LCB traffic enters Ridgeway at the north (Friendly Avenue) and drives south (toward Market Street).  Three fourths of cars turn east on Madison; the rest continue to Market.  This year, in an attempt to get folks to drive the length of Ridgeway, we thought if we parked the trailer on Ridgeway that might make things easier.  As it turned out, drivers seemed puzzled when the trailer wasn't in its usual place, between the sidewalk and Madison in front of Toad Hall.  Navigating to its new location seemed hard.  Some parked alongside Madison, as in years before, got out, and walked around the corner to the trailer across from Marlene's home. Others stopped on Marlene's side of the street and walked across Ridgeway to access the trailer. Not safe.  So friends Jim and Janet offered to meet us at home after work to move the trailer to safer (and more accessible) ground. We arrived home to find the trailer, neatly and safely parked right on the curve of the corner, in plain view, complete with Harris Teeter tailgating tent tied down with tent stakes, safe and sound.  Thanks Jim and Janet.

People kept coming Sunday and Monday nights, bringing gifts of non-perishable food.  By Tuesday morning the trailer was about half full and the forecast was for rain, so before noon I stopped by, transferred bags, boxes, cans and jars to my Suburban and drove over to Potter's house.

It's been a year since I had been to Potters house. A mid-day weekday visit is as busy as it gets.  Men and women, some going some coming, some new to street life, some tired, faces worn and eyes blank; I saw a high school aged kid with a backpack and a mixed race couple. The homeless rarely walk side by side, like my wife and I do; one walks in front, the other ten or so feet behind, like a wounded person on a litter or a deer being hauled back to camp.  Truth is, they're exhausted to the point they have nothing left to give each other; couples who've lost a child feel like this.

Antonio and two other men whose names I didn't get met me at the dock before I could ring the buzzer (see sign, right).  Antonio, I learned, played football for Grimsley and graduated in 2001.  Greensboro needs more men like these men, strong, focused, servant-leaders. 

All totaled, Friends of Lighted Christmas Balls, which includes Sunset Hills neighbors and friends who attended the 7th Annual Lighted Christmas Ball Workshop, had given an abundance of nourishing, life-sustaining non-perishable food to Potter's house. 

Our goal is 10,000 pounds this year.  Help make it so.  We've got a good start, but that's where you come in.  If your life has been blessed with abundance, consider making a grocery shop using this suggested shopping list, stopping by one of several food collection points in the neighborhood, or investing cash in 2nd Harvest Food Bank of Northwest North Carolina or Greensboro Urban Ministry.  Come enjoy the Lighted Christmas Balls.  Bring your friends, family, and co-workers, and bring a bag of non-perishable food.  And share your hope with those whose hope has run dry.  Here's a map, we'll have other collection points mapped out by this weekend.

You can't read the dial on the scales just above the big box on the right.  It reads 488 pounds. 

It's raining where we live, hard.  It's 37 degrees cold.  I just went outside to check the trailer, it's already starting refilling itself.  I can't believe folks brave cold and the wet and dark of night just to put a few cans of groceries in a wet trailer.  But then, my faith is pretty small.

Lighted Christmas Balls Host Families Coverd Dish Supper

With the Lighted Christmas Balls Party one week away we wanted to get as many of the host families as possible together for a short meeting to tie down loose ends.  Gardner reportred that the hunger problem in NC is showing no signs of letting up.  Second Harvest, which distributes donated food to more than 400 non-profit partner agencies that serve people at risk of hunger and others in need from Boone to Burlington, is experiencing its second consecutive year of unprecedented demand for food.  Last week, WFDD reported that one in six North Carolinians worries about running out of food sometime in the next seven days.  Documented research shows one out of every five children in North Carolina experience food insecurity. 

Sunset Hills Neighborhood is committed to doing something about this.  Jamey and Phil are providing a 2nd food collection trailer at the corner of Rolling and West Greenway North, and can safeguard donated food from the elements and redeliver it to food banks.  John Englar suggested yard signs signs with a simple catch phrase could go a long way to helping connect the experience of enjoying the lighted balls with the bigger purpose of shining a light on the problem of hunger in North Carolina.  Triad sign maker Bravo Signs, who helped sponsor our last two workshops/food drives, will make signage for 2nd food trailer and our new yard signs.  More later.

Jonathan announced that Glenwood Tutoring Program will have their Christmas party December 7, and they'd love us to be part of their effort.  For the last two years, Sunset Hills neighbors worked with the program's tutors and students to make and hang over 50 Lighted Christmas Balls.  Neighborhoods like Glenwood live on life's margins.  Poverty, drugs, and prostitution are in ample supply.  Stability, hope, and joy are scarce.  Glenwood may be on the margins, but it benefits from a huge multiplyer affect: any good done there gets so much bang for the buck.   Just imagine what Greensboro will be like if each student of Glenwood Tutoring Program hangs a Lighted Christmas Ball in their yard 40 years from now, offering stability, hope and joy.  Jonathan will send around a signup memo with some possible dates. 

Everyone signed up for all the working parts of the party.  Despite that the City of Greensboro has offered us an optional "rain date" for the following Sunday, we said if we could take last year's nasty weather, we can take anything.  Besides, our statiscian says, it's rained the last three years and we're overdue for a clear day.  The forecast for next Sunday indicates cold and clear, but that could change.  Stone soup is in the offing again so remember to bring your canned vegatables to add to the pot.   If we have more vegtables than we need, they will be added to the food drive trailer.

As always there was lots of stories and lots of laughter as this is just the start of the season when we all meet new neighbors, get to know neighbors better and make new friends. The Lighted Christmas Balls no longer just Christmas decorations, they are the cord that binds a neighborhood, one more thing that makes living in Sunset Hills so very special.

While we adjourned to the living room to enjoy an open fire, a glass of wine, and friends, Janet and Jeff took over the kitchen and scraped, scrubbed, and washed evey pot, bowl, plate, fork, spoon and glass in sight, and left us with a spotlessly clean kitchen. What a wonderful treat. What a joy. Thank you, guys.

FAQ - Lighted Christmas Balls

Why are the Lighted Christmas Balls so important to you? It has been a great neighborhood project for Sunset Hills. We know more neighbors than we ever would under 'normal circumstances.'  Lighted Christmas Balls are beautiful (in the dark), they encourage the old, thrill the young, amaze all in between. We have laughed with our neighbors and family and spent hours of enjoyment putting them up, keeping them lit, and eventually taking them down for another season.

What have you enjoyed most as this tradition has continued? We love that they are used in the spirit of increasing fun, joy, hope, beauty, and encouragement. We like to help people make them. We are touched that the regional cancer center in Greensboro sends their cancer patients, who have just recieved chemo, radiation or other therapy, to our neighborhood for an extra dose of hope. Many of the retirement communities in the area drive their little buses through the neighborhood to delight their residents. And finally - people who want to show gratitude to the neighborhood for the lights leave canned food in a trailer in front of our home and other collection points in the neighborhood. Those canned goods are then taken to 2nd Harvest Food Bank and Urban Ministry in Greensboro. Last year we collected close to 2 tons of food thanks to the generosity of those driving through. This year we hope to double that amount.

Do you care that other neighborhoods have also done this? We love that most of all, we would love to see them all over the city, county, state and beyond.

What else is fun about them? The emails and phone calls we receive from as far west as California, as far south as Florida, and as far north as the UP of Michigan. We have put those letters on this blog, look around for them with their photos. This week we received a box from a family in Laurel Mississippi who sent over some equipment and new ideas about getting the balls installed and getting electricity to them. We can't wait to share them with you at this year's workshop.

The photo of Jonathan with the box of goodies from Mississippi is shown above.

Food Drive totals

Friends of Lighted Christmas Balls donated 3,729 pounds of non-perishable food during December 2008; this is 753 pounds, or 25%, over 2007's total!

Lighted Christmas Balls on Current TV

fcproducer's producer/editor andy coon and and blake faucette, dp, came to see us Christmas Eve with their video cams, spirits of adventure, and filmed this treasure of a documentary (with no rehearsals or retakes). Truly they captured the spirit of Christmas, but hearing their stories about how the Lighted Christmas Balls brighten their lives was a real gift. Thanks Andy (and Blake), for sharing your gifts and talents, and for spreading the Lighted Christmas Balls.



enjoy it, share it, and tell the folks at current tv how you like it.

if you haven't already seen it, check out video andy made in 2006 of the Lighted Christmas Balls.

WFMY News 2

WFMY reporter Kerri Hartsfield and camera man John Brumbaugh pulled into the Grace Community Church parking lot late Monday afternoon. It's a good thing they did; Jeff, Justin, Emmett, and Jonathan needed just two more pairs of hands to raise the 60 or so Lighted Christmas balls that had been made by kids in the Glenwood Tutoring Program, and Kerri and John jumped right in and helped. Kerri had to make several trips to her car to thaw out, and John clutched his camcorder and shivered now and again and didn't get to thaw out. The two stayed until all the trees glowed with lights before heading to Sunset Hills for a different perspetive and to broadcast the 11:00 pm news, 'live from the corner of Ridgeway and Madison.' Afterward, I went outside thank them for all they had done to raise the awareness for hunger, and how together, our communities can solve a real live problem affecting one in eight North Carolinians and one in five children. Seeing the true spirit of Christmas reflected in their eyes was gratifying; grinning, I cautioned them that they're now hooked on Lighted Christmas balls for life and invited them to come back often and enjoy the beauty when they're off the clock.

Wirecutters working wonders on wire

Friends Beth, Claire, Ali, Cindy, David and Gardner brave the cold to get the lighted Christmas ball kits ready for the 6th annual Sunset Hills lighted ball workshop and charity fund raiser. Each 150' roll of Chicken Wire will make about 40 lighted Christmas balls. That's a lot of wire cutting to make kits for 300 or more lighted Christmas Balls. It looks like Beth, Claire, and Ali invented a special system to make measuring faster and easier.

Claire and Ali had already helped out in a big way before helping cut wire: they hand-delivered invitations to families in the neighborhood for whom we didn't have email addresses. David is wondering which family will be the first to get their lighted Christmas balls up in the trees.

Anne and I spent last night and today with grandchildren Avery, Jackson in Asheville. Today, treat of all treats, we got to take them up to Windy Gap (13.4 miles NE) to see cousin Grayson and her Mom and Dad and a bunch of old and new Young Life friends. On the way up to Windy Gap, we saw some early Christmas lights. There must be a lot of excited people here. Avery announced she was ready to see lighted Christmas balls at Sunset Hills. (Well really, she said "Toad Hall" but I know she meant Sunset Hills . Avery is 2 1/2 and knows all about Christmas lights. Her cousin Grayson is 13 months and knows all about Christmas lights and a thing or two besides. Between the two, they have more passion for life than is safe to be around! But you'll never hear me complain.

My highlight today was getting to feed Grandson Jackson his 10:45 pm bottle. We talked all about the day and how much fun we had.

Because hunger never takes a vacation

This is National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week; it is co-sponsored each year by the National Coalition for the Homeless and the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness. Observed one week before Thanksgiving, NHHAW's aim is to bring awareness and promote efforts to end homelessness and hunger in communities across the nation.

The poor have friends, one of whom is Michelle Forrest, in Greensboro. Among other things, Michelle is a mom, and though StreetWatch, an advocate for the poor. She's a blogger and a web designer and member of the NightWatch and DayWatch street outreach teams.

She and her friends know the pain of bare shelves and the blessing of sacrifice. They know requests for food and financial assistance are up everywhere and they know donations are down. In their compassion, they worry that the homeless and hungry, whose needs outweighed provisions at the top of the boom, will be those who will ride the bust the longest. They don't worry alone.

After hosting a one day food drive at last year's workshop, extending it for the entire Thanksgiving/Christmas season seemed like the right thing to do. Although no one had experienced then the cratering retirement accounts and plummeting home prices we experience now, still the greater portion of donated food came from hands who could least afford to give it. Most plastic grocery store bags contained just one or two items, and from Food Lion not Fresh Market; some bags still had the cash register receipts showing what had been purchased was paid for with cash not plastic.

I just read that during some of the worst of times, giving remained strong. Even during the great depression, the NY Times reported charitable giving more than doubled from 1933 to 1941.

Let's hope the same will be said of this generation.