“Sometimes they give me hugs, sometimes they say ‘God bless you,’ and then they say ‘thank you’ — or they’ll just do all of those three,” says Khloe Thompson with a smile when she talks about the way homeless women have responded to her when she hands them one of her personal care packages.
After passing homeless people on the way to school every day, Khloe was inspired to help. With her great-grandmother’s assistance, Khloe makes one-of-a-kind handbags and fills them with personal care items like toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, and feminine hygiene products. She says she was touched when a woman told her that her bag made her “feel like a human being.”
Khloe’s mother says she was fearful at first about her daughter’s direct contact with the homeless, but she stays close by and says that Khloe not only has a way of putting people at ease, but she’s good about introducing herself and explaining what she’s doing.
“It’s really making a difference,” says her great-grandmother, Betty. “It’s making a difference in her, and it’s making a difference in us …”
And today we celebrate...