Charity Begins At Home In Lisle...Helping the Homeless

​Last month, on one of the coldest days of the year, I saw a homeless man, here in Lisle, sitting on the curb wrapped in a blanket. I thought how is this possible that there isn’t somewhere for the homeless to get out of the cold. It really bothered me. (I later found out that after walking over 3 miles, he was turned away from PADS because he was from out of state and the locals had 1st priority).
I went back to work and called a client of ours Linda Alberty, owner of Cultivate Excellence, who organized a crusade this Christmas to help the homeless in Chicago, called Operation Jesus.  I wanted to see if she was aware of any resources to help Bill. She was kind enough to donate a warm blanket and some other supplies.
I went back searching for him to find out his story… His name was Bill and he was from South Carolina. He came here to care for his ailing brother who has now sadly passed. Bill was stranded with no way home. He had a tattered old backpack barely containing everything he owned. I replaced it with a sturdy canvas backpack and filled it with supplies, and food. I asked him if he would like to go back to South Carolina. He was so grateful for the opportunity to return home. So, we started a collection in the salon and were astounded by all the generosity and kindness from our clients! One of our clients actually paid for his plane ticket! Thank you so much Nancy! We had clients and our stylists not only donating cash but clothing, shoes, toiletries etc.! How gratifying it was to experience the goodness and selfless acts of humanity first hand!
The end of the story is that Bill came in the night before his flight to the salon where I gave him a shampoo, haircut and shaved off his beard that had helped keep him warm all those cold winter days and nights!
Rayme’s Restaurant in Lisle donated a hot dinner which he thoroughly enjoyed! Courtney was kind enough to donate an UBER drive to the airport!  Bill was on his way home….
Bon Voyage Bill! We wish you the best!
We want to thank all of you that contributed in any way in helping Bill!
 
If you would like to do your part to contribute in helping the homeless please simply vote for Cultivate Excellence who is participating in a contest, that would award them a $25,000 prize which would enable her to do even more to help the homeless…One of Linda’s goals is to purchase a bus and install a shower so they could travel to the homeless and allow them a warm safe place to get clean. Please help Linda by simply VOTING HERE (you can click the Yellow VOTE button up to 10 times every hour) Thank you for your help!