Activities and Opinions

Richard Walter Wolf, 56, St. Augustine, died peacefully at his home on Dec. 1, 2009. He was born in Newton, N.J., and had resided here for 20 years, moving here from California. He was a proprietor of a lawn care business before retiring.

Private services are planned.

He is survived by his father, Walter Wolf, and a sister, Marty Wolf, both of Wilmette, Ill.

St. Johns Family Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Richard was one of our homeless citizens who did indeed die in his "home." A public memorial will be held Tuesday 12/08/09 at the Mental Health Drop-in Center at 11:00AM

Last year, PUSH’s "Santa" delivered gift bags for about 40 children at the Emergency Services Homeless Coalition’s transitional housing campus. This year we were approved for the same activity, had been cleared for 5:30 PM on December 14, 2009, had received a list of the children by first name, age and gender from the housing manager and had begun purchasing new gifts for the children.

The week of November 29, 2009, the PUSH coordinator for the gifts was contacted by the manager at the transitional housing and told not to come this year, as there were “many churches and the Junior League of St Augustine taking care of the kids and families this Christmas season.” PUSH contacted several area churches and the Junior League and could not find a single organization supporting these families with a holiday party and gifts.

PUSH is hearing from residents at the transitional housing campus that we are the ones pulling out from this activity, which is patently false. In an effort to counteract this lie, each family at the transitional housing is receiving the enclosed holiday card, as is the local print media and all five county commissioners. We will not tolerate this attack on our efforts to support the homeless community.

Because of this late cancellation, our donors have had to be contacted to request diversion of their donations to another group of families in need in our county and a huge amount of effort is being required to make changes to plans that had been in operation for over two months.

It’s unclear why the Emergency Services Homeless Coalition is rejecting the support of PUSH, particularly at this time of year and in these economic times. We hope that the families at the transitional housing campus are in fact being supported by other agencies and churches and that they have a joyous and peaceful holiday.

- Mary Lawrence

Food Not Bombs - 11/22/09

For the third year in a row, PUSH members pursued their stated mission of educating the public about homelessness in St Johns County by providing the mayor’s paying guests with information on the numbers of homeless people, homeless veterans, and homeless students. They stood outside the entrance to City Hall and held signs with this information for the guests’ benefit and were available to answer any questions. Directly in front of City Hall, St. Augustine Food Not Bombs  held a marvelous dinner for the homeless and working poor and fed over 30 people, in plain sight of the entering guests. For the second year in a row, the impoverished in our community stood in solidarity with PUSH and Food Not Bombs.

Nights of Lights - 11/21/09

Lisa Atkinson, from Hospice, gave a presentation on services and locations in St Johns County.

Jean, Community Resources Center, noted the Christ Cupboard Food Bank is feeding 40-50 families in the Julington Creek area. They need donations and are located close to the Bartram Trail Library.

Vikki, NewStart, provides a tuition request letter for agencies to refer people to her for job training and interviewing skills. Forty hours of volunteer service to the agency is required before they can submit this letter to NewStart.

MaryLea, Family Integrity Program, outlined the Prisoner Re Entry program and announced their next meeting 12/4.

Dr Hogan, Hogan’s Harvest (houses women released from jail) has no clients at this time.

Ina, WorkSource mentioned the extension service program might not be ready til mid/late December.

Mary, PUSH, announced the completion of the countywide survey and said results, both preliminary and analyzed, would be announced soon.

Wanda Brinson needs volunteers to deliver meals to veterans for Thanksgiving. Call 829.8189. She also noted the complete lack of affordable housing in SJC with current average rentals at 700-750/month and slum lord properties going for 500-600/month.

The WILDFlower Clinic will open in January. This is a 100% volunteer free medical and dental clinic. Their client list is full through March 2010. Good Samaritan on MLK will close.

Col Maguire, Marine Corps Det 383 outlined their Toys for Tots effort. Boxes are all over the place in about 30-40 locations. They need agencies to ID population of 0-12 yr old children and recipients must be on their list. Any family receiving services qualifies. Needs help on 12/19 at Elks Lodge on Anastasia for distribution day.

Next meeting of IST will be January 29, 2010 at First Coast, details to follow in separate PUSH email.