WASHINGTON — Are you racking your brain trying to find the perfect gift for that certain someone who has everything? Well, this Christmas you can help give the gift of hope to those who have nothing.
“The homeless are often overlooked in society,” says Jay Herriott.
For example, he says, when you see a homeless men holding signs, they become those signs.
“They lose their name. It’s hey, it’s that homeless guy,” he says.
But anyone could have a life-changing event that immediately changes his world.
Herriott runs “The 25th Project,” a non-profit dedicated to helping the homeless reclaim their lives.
“It’s the coolest thing I’ve ever been involved with because you make an impact. You can actually see that the people really appreciate that we come out. They appreciate that someone thought of them.”
He’s inviting you, on Christmas morning to help spread a little Christmas cheer by giving meals and presents to the homeless in Northern Virginia and D.C.
Beginning around 8:45 a.m. Christmas, Herriott will meet with volunteers at Burke Community Church where they’ll wrap presents and get the meals together. The church is located at 9900 Old Keene Mill Rd. Burke, VA 22015. It can be reached at 703-425-0205.
“About 10:45 we’ll mount up and head to Prince William County to the homeless tent camps,” says Herriott.
After that he says the group will head to D.C.’s Franklin Park at 14th and K streets and to a few shelters in the city.
The types of gifts they’ll be giving out include “tents, sleeping bags and heavy lined, quilted lined flannel shirts.”
But the one gift the he says volunteers will provide that is priceless is the gift of hope.
“If you spent an hour with one of our homeless friends, it would drastically change the way you feel about homelessness,” Herriott says.
His goal with the homeless “is to help restore their name and get them back into society.”
Herriott says the D.C. area has nine of the richest counties in the country but still he says the area has what he calls the “professional homeless” — people who are working but are making $10 an hour and can’t survive.
