My thoughts this week are more on next week… Spring Break! My car will be rocking, heading down I-65 stuffed with teenage girls excited for a fun-filled beach vacation--after two years of craziness and limited social lives, they/we are ready to cut loose. It’s insane how much planning is involved to organize a carefree trip: what are the best deals for restaurants, how much activities cost, who sleeps where, how to get places with too many kids and one car….
Sandy Brewer Wright is also making plans, with more immediacy and compassion, for a different Spring Break week—for those living in Murfreesboro’s four motels and 22 outside camps for the homeless. She and the Murfreesboro Faith Project are asking for help to provide motel-friendly food and snacks, board games and crafts for children while they are out of school next week, not staying at a beach resort, but in a motel where curfews are as early as 6 p.m. They are seeking funds to get the kids out during the day, to go bowling, a movie, or the playground.
Wright, with her jet black hair, huge God-serving smile, and petite build, looks more like a country music star than a homeless advocate. She works 30 hours a week, some nights without sleep, to support her “outside friends” while leading a full-time career in the construction industry. As a child, she didn’t understand why they moved from place-to-place. She would go days without food, sometimes diving into a dumpster to grab what she could. She shared that her mother is an addict.
“My heart is in service,” exclaimed Wright. “God never gives me something I can’t handle. Emergencies come up. People need to be situated in the night. We bridge people where they are. Once you pay $450 a week for a motel, it’s hard to make a deposit for housing,” said Wright.” She added with pride that last year they helped four families step into stable housing.
Murfreesboro Faith Project has eleven full-time volunteers. This 32-year old ministry just filed for its 501 C3 status allowing for greater ease in nonprofit giving. The volunteers provide supplies and food, they manage medical appointments, prescriptions, and court dates. They supplement pay for the motels, and last week put expensive gas in four cars. They take people to detox and rehab.
“People don’t have stability. Whether it is a single mom living in a car or an addict in the woods, we serve them without judgement and love them where they are,” said Wright, whose compassion for others, to this point, overflowed during our call, whether for people on the streets or this mom in the subdivision.
“I have fond memories of church people bringing food. And, Christmas gifts showing up that Mom didn’t give us, “ said Wright. “When I have a chance to share this love to children, I will do it every time. My Spring Break push is to make sure they have food. I don’t want moms to worry. There is no greater love to share than with a woman struggling to take care of her children.”
To contribute food appropriate for use in motel rooms using dorm-sized fridges and microwaves, (macaroni and cheese, pop-top microwaveable soups, lunch meat, bread), as well as board games and craft supplies, please deliver them to Drake’s Barber Shop at 1117 Memorial Boulevard, Murfreesboro. Monetary contributions may be made through Paypal to: murfreesborofaithproject.com. To volunteer during Spring Break, please contact Sandy Wright at 615.995.5455.
Collier Andress Smith, a former Murfreesboro City School Board member, is a Louisiana native whose career path led her to a prized presidential appointment to The White House. She uses her communications, fundraising and political background to benefit many charities, her children’s schools, and St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. She enjoys her family, good friends, books, a little red wine, and a lot of tennis. Smith is celebrating 25 years of marriage to husband Fant and they have three children: Sally, Fant and Helen.