Speech with Text

I'm very honored, and nervous, that I was asked to come here and speak to all of you guys today and I'm very proud as well to be a part of something as wonderful and as special as The Salvation Army. I get very emotional when I share my experience with The Salvation Army or when I just think about it myself you know because it has meant so much to me in my life.

The Salvation Army has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I came from a very long line of addiction and that meant that there was very little money in our household. So The Salvation Army became very important to me from a very young age. I learned very quickly that if we were hungry The Salvation Army would provide us with food. If we were cold The Salvation Army would give us with coats. If we had no clothes The Salvation Army would give us clothes. And heaven forbid we were we going to get evicted or the lights might get shut off but The Salvation Army had funding for that too. I could go on and on and on about everything they provided for me as a child, but I wont.

One of the most memorable things for me about The Salvation Army was what they did for us at Christmas Time. Christmas was very hard around my house as a child. Since we had very little money it went without saying that there would be very little under the tree and I would worry that there wouldn't be anything at all. But The Salvation Army always made sure that we had presents under the tree and food as well. A lot of times the gifts would have these little notes attached and on the notes would be a little prayer or a bible story. I really wonder if the people that wrote those little notes and attached them to those gifts knew how much they meant to us on Christmas morning. It was a symbolism of hope and that somebody was out there and that somebody was going to look after us no matter what. It really meant a lot.

As I grew up to become an adult I was no different than the rest of my family, I too was an addict. While I was in active addiction what little bit of money I was able to bring into my house, I spent on drugs. But I knew that there was somewhere I could go for help, I knew I could go to The Salvation Army. They had been there for me all through my childhood and they were there for me as an adult as well. I knew that, that was the one place that I could go where I would never be turned away. They never judged me. They never one time said to me, 'oh I'm sorry, we don't help junkies here'. They never mentioned the tracks on my arms, my uncombed hair, my dirty clothes, never once. They only wanted to know what they could do to help.

And still the most memorable time was Christmas. There was many, many Christmases where the only presents in our house was what was donated to us from The Salvation Army, that was it. And there was no food in the house, there would have been no Christmas dinner had it not been for the basket that we received.

Eventually I went on and thankfully I found recovery that is to say that I am clean from all substances. And that took me on a journey to college and I took a class that said I needed 4 hours of community service in order to get credit for that class, they called it a service learning project. Well I immediately knew where I wanted to do mine, I wanted to do it at The Salvation Army and I told the instructor that, "Hey, I'm doing it here". And I called them, and it needed to be done in the social services department, not only did it need to be done there but that was where I wanted to do it because that was the place that meant the most to me. But I went in and of course they didn't have any positions open. But thankfully I'm very stubborn and I waited and I called and waited and eventually Peter Iverson called me and he said, 'hey, we've been needing someone to fill this position, we just created it, its for someone to do grant research would you like to do that?' Yes! I do want to do that! And then I thought how special is this community of people that was there for me all the way through my childhood, all the way through my addiction, and then when I needed credit for a college class and wanted to give back to them, they found a way to allow me to do so. And in doing that, I don't even know if they realize how they showed me that this person that thought they would never have anything to give to anybody had a lot to offer and that they wanted it. But it wasn't just for the credits; if that was the case then I would have been gone long ago. I really enjoy it.

I will never in my lifetime be able to express the enormous amount of gratitude I feel towards The Salvation Army and everything they've done for me and my family and are still doing within the community. All I can do is give of myself, give back and say thank you, thank you for everything.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Speech