Our event to feed San Diego’s homeless for Christmas 2015 truly was a success! The Streets of Hope held its annual Christmas homeless event and it was a huge success thanks to the servant hearts of all the volunteers.

San Diego Homeless Christmas Event

Over 160+ homeless people in attendance

Close to 60 Streets of Hope Volunteers

144+ Meals Served

40+ Haircuts

100’s of Articles of Clothing Passed out

60 Pair of High-End Running Shoes Distributed

11 Multi-Minute Massages

33 Adjustments by a professional Chiropractor

9 People committed to God deeper

Here’s how the night went:

Christmas Hair Cutting for the Homeless

Last Thanksgiving Tammy cut hair for the homeless by herself (read more about it here). So Tammy prayed about finding more people and then a few days later Alice, a licensed cosmetologist, contacted us through the website and said she was interested in donating her time for hair cuts. Thanks Alice for coming tonight!

So the 2 cutting hair quickly become 8 when Streets of Hope volunteer Tammany S. (not to be confused with Tammy N.) asked her friend Chris, who is also a stylist, to join us. Not only did Chris agree to cut hair for the homeless, but Chris also asked some of her fellow stylist to also join us. Tammy’s prayer was answered: 8 people total showed up to help cut hair. So Steve, Manny, Maricela, Bonnie, Willie joined Alice and Tammy in downtown San Diego tonight to begin cutting hair around 4:30pm.

After 2 hours of cutting the homeless’ hair, all 8 of the hair stylist cut over 44 homeless people’s hair! Thanks to all of you for your amazing servant’s heart. Be sure to see the photo gallery below for some before and after pictures of the homeless haircuts.

Massages for San Diego’s Homeless During Christmas

Once again for a Streets of Hope homeless outreach, we had our professional masseuse David, set up his table and give free 10 minute massages to the homeless. David’s wife Cindy wrote the homeless names down on the list and David began to go to work. He’s amazing. Each homeless person he massaged he put his full effort into it.

One homeless young man named Johnathan came to the night’s event and simple wanted to eat and leave. But one of our volunteers pulled him over to David and when Johnathan realized he was being offered a real massage, he was shocked. He said, “Wait, what, for the homeless? You want to massage the homeless people.” So he sat down in the massage chair and David began to give him a massage. The transformation in Johnathan was so apparent after David finished: he could just not stop smiling. Check out the photo of David and Jonathan.

Thanks David and Cindy for massaging the homeless during Christmas.

Feeding the San Diego’s Homeless During Christmas

Once again Christina made food for 100+ people! She slaved in her kitchen for hours and hours making a traditional ham dinner with all the fixings! And once again, somehow, the food she made for about a hundred ended up feeding over 140 people! That’s amazing. Thank you God! And thank you Christina, and Isaiah, her incredible son, for working so hard for so many of San Diego’s homeless.

Clothing and Shelter San Diego’s Homeless on Christmas

Tarps for the Homeless

Tonight was a special night as the Streets of Hope San Diego team pooled their donations together and was able to buy over 100 tarps and dozens of blankets to pass out to the homeless. Tarps, socks, shoes and blankets are some of the most requested items from the homeless on the streets. Tonight in San Diego it was scheduled for a light rain and it felt so good to get these tarps to pass out. Tarps are popular because, as a homeless person, you can lay on the them or put them over your things to keep the rain off. Many homeless people use the tarps by tying them to trees or fences thus making their own temporary shelter.

Shoes for the Homeless

Once again, one of the highlights of donating clothes to San Diego’s homeless tonight was the 60+ pairs of high-end running shoes donated by RoadRunnerSports.com. The Streets of Hope San Diego team did an amazing job of getting everyone’s shoe sizes! Tonight we actually had some men’s size 12 and 13. Wow, were those homeless guys with big feet greatful for brand new shoes their size. Thanks RoadRunnerSports.com and Jackie from Road Runner Sports for all your support!

Clothing for the Homeless

So, for the first time ever we had too many clothing donations. It was amazing to see Conrad’s car at the end of the night piled with all the left over clothing for the homeless. What this really means, however, is that every single homeless person who asked for clothes (about 144) got something and got what they wanted. That’s a great feeling to know that no homeless person walked away empty handed!

Not only did everyone get something they could use, in the past at our special events, the donation area would get very chaotic, but tonight it, once again, it was well organized. Another smooth night of feeding and clothing San Diego’s homeless for Christmas! Thanks Jenn, Curtis, Conrad and the rest of the donation team for making it so great.

Talking About the Birth of Jesus with the Homeless During Christmas

What would holding a Christmas homeless event in San Diego be without a few words about the birth of Jesus. So our own Dan D. spoke from the bible about Jesus’ birth. Because there were over 200 people (about 60 volunteers and 140 homeless people), Dan spoke from the back of David’s, the massage therapist, pick-up truck. He started off his talk by asking the crowd to name that one Christmas gift they had to have when they were younger. Homeless people and volunteers alike shared smiles and laughter as they shouted out such gifts as footballs, Barbie dolls, Easy Bake Ovens, soccer balls, G.I. Joe’s, Big Wheels, Justin Beiber CD and more.

It was a good message about being grateful for the gifts we have, especially the gift of Jesus. When he finished he asked anyone who wanted to accept Christ into their heart to raise their hand, and 9 people raised their hands high! Some of the volunteers from the Streets of Hope asked those who raised their hands if they wanted them to pray for them and all accepted prayer.

Special Thanks By Name

So we need to give a special thanks to some of you by name:

Thanks to Our Christmas Homeless Hair Cutting Team

Tammy – Homeless Haircut Stylist/ Special Event Coordinator
Steve – Homeless Haircut Stylist
Manny – Homeless Haircut Stylist
Maricela – Homeless Haircut Stylist
Bonnie – Homeless Haircut Stylist
Alice – Homeless Haircut Stylist
Willie – Homeless Haircut Stylist
Hani – Homeless Haircut Check-In
To all of you who helped sweep up

Thanks to Our Christmas Feed the Homeless Team

Christina and Isaiah for bringing the main dish and side dishes!
And of course all of you that passed out the food to the homeless

Thanks to Our Christmas Homeless Massage Team

David, our homeless massage therapist, and his wife Cindy for the 2 hours he massaged the homeless without pay or tip – the smiles were payment enough.

Thanks to Our Christmas Homeless Chiropractor Team

Jeremy, our homeless chiropractor.
This is the first time we’ve had the chance to have a chiropractor. There were some amazing stories about how Jeremy was able to use his talents to bring not just smiles, but some real healing. Click here to read about Cheryl and the chiropractic adjustment Jeremy gave her that might have just changed her life.

Thanks to Our Christmas Clothing Donations Team

Jackie for bringing over 60 pairs of shoes this time from RoadRunnerShoes.com. WOW
Jenn and Curtis for talking to each homeless person and getting their shoe size and clothing requests (Be sure and see the photos of the lists below in the photo gallery.)
Curtis and Conrad for leading the way with Jenn in organization and directing people in the donations area!
Derek, Jeremy, Jo, Paul and the rest of you for helped make the passing out of the homeless donations orderly
To all of you who brought clothes, blankets, toiletries and more

Other Special Thanks for This Christmas Event

Eric for being the Night Administrator and making sure every volunteer had a role
Mark for leading us in Christmas and worship songs all evening
Dan for speaking about Christmas and Jesus
Nate for encouraging, and floating around the entire evening encouraging everyone
Parker for taking professional photos and video all night
Jo, Marta, Tammany, Parker, Lyle, Curtis, Alex, Andrea and all of you for serving for to the homeless
Tammy for doing all the special event coordination
Once again thanks to Tammany who coordinated with Dave Miller from Thrivent for the “Live Generously” T-Shirts and financial support for the event
To Road Runner Sports who donated over 100 amazing running shoes!