Our Community, Our Mission
Our Community, Our Mission
Ep #273 – Backpacks of Hope: Preparing Children for School Success
Back-to-school season means more than pencils and backpacks—it’s about restoring dignity, structure, and hope for children facing difficult circumstances. In this episode, the TRM team shares the heartfelt stories and behind-the-scenes work of preparing students for the classroom, from organizing supplies to creating moments of joy and normalcy. La Manda Cunningham, TRM CEO, reflects on what it means when a child has what they need, not just physically, but emotionally—because for every child, school is their job.
You’ll also hear from John Roberts, Deputy Director of Community Needs and Services, and Andrew Lucas, Director of Distribution Services, as they talk about the logistics, heart, and community effort behind this mission. From Minecraft backpacks to last-minute miracles, it’s clear that God is at work—sometimes immediately, sometimes months later—but always faithfully. Join the conversation and learn how you can be part of not just planting seeds, but orchards of hope in the lives of kids and families who need it most.
To check out our Needs List, Click Here!
To support TRM, Click Here!
Dear Heavenly Father, we just come humbly before you and thank you for this day, your blessings and your provisions, God. We thank you for God, just this time to record this podcast, Lord, and just all that you're doing within the community, within TRM, Lord, and thank you that we get to communicate it, and thank you for our listeners. Lord, pray that they would be blessed by it today and, Lord, that you'd be glorified and honored In your holy name. We pray, amen. Hello.
Speaker 2:Amen. Hello everybody, thank you for joining us with our community, our mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission. Today is Tuesday, july 1st 2025. This is episode number 273. I'm your host today, barry Feaker, here with Lamanda Cunningham, ceo of Topeka Rescue Mission. Good morning Lamanda, good morning July already.
Speaker 3:I know, and you know, barry, I'm kind of torn because on one hand I'm like how is it July? That means we're officially halfway through the year, all the to-dos. The other side, you know, having five kids, I'm like we're closer to school starting.
Speaker 2:We've almost survived. Which is panic city or can't?
Speaker 3:wait. No, mama needs structure and I need people out the door and learning for eight hours a day.
Speaker 2:Plus, not to mention all the kids at Hope Center, correct, who would be really nice if they were back in school.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, um, you know it's just so good and it's so funny because you think like breaks are good and they are Um. But honestly, kids and adults, we all thrive from like predictability and structure and all of that we really do. So for the first, even couple of weeks, it's like OK, it's good. And then all of a sudden I start looking around even my staff that have kids and stuff. I'm like man, there's no tired like one Christmas tired around TRM, and then two when it's all the breaks for the parents and the parents are juggling work and kids.
Speaker 2:So we're making it, it's the same thing every year.
Speaker 1:It is All the time. You just put your kids in like as many camps as you can.
Speaker 3:Yes, but then you're tired with that. Taxi driving, and does the camp start at nine? Does it start at eight? Is it three day or four days? Five, days.
Speaker 1:Does it go till noon? Yes, till 2.30. Do I?
Speaker 3:send a lunch, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we're juggling the struggle, barry, and then, of course, in your situation, when we have a snow day and kids get to come home, you don't get to come home because you're dealing with snow days at the rescue mission.
Speaker 3:Correct Yep, and I'm loading them all up saying we're going to serve.
Speaker 2:We're going to and something special coming up, but we want to jump into. What we always enjoy is the research and development department, which is down at the end of the table here. Josh Turley, you're welcome, josh. Thank you for all of these incredible things that are important, but we're going to invite our two guests here today, which are kind of not guests, but they are guests because they're staff and they've been on the podcast a thousand times. John Roberts, deputy Director of Community Services. Good morning, good morning, good morning. And we have Andrew here. Lucas, who is Director of Distribution Services, you've been on the podcast as well. Good, morning.
Speaker 4:I have Good morning.
Speaker 2:Okay, are you guys ready for this? Let's do it. Okay, this is what's special about July the 1st. Now, if you have a cheat sheet in front of you, turn it over the other way, don't look at it. Okay, hey, you really follow the rules there and that's pretty good. So today is International Joke Day. Did you know that, lamanda?
Speaker 3:No, I didn't, you didn't, but I kind of think you have a joke, I do Okay.
Speaker 2:All right, so you're ready, I'm ready.
Speaker 3:How do you make a tissue dance?
Speaker 2:You in it. Well, thanks for listening everybody, that's right. Thank you all very much. I mean, how could you not love that one? Yeah, okay, all right. What about you, john, got any dad jokes or anything?
Speaker 3:oh, um, john is a walking dad, joke we hear them thanks I think, sounds kindly like a jab a little bit, uh huh I don't know.
Speaker 5:I have a lot of pirate jokes, but they're mostly rated R.
Speaker 2:Save that for a different podcast.
Speaker 1:That's good, that's really good. Hey, I got where do. Or what happens to bad rainbows? They go to prism. Don't worry though. It's a light sentence. It's just to give them time to reflect.
Speaker 3:Oh, my word, that takes the cheese right.
Speaker 2:Sure, all of you are much more enlightened today, here, on July the 1st. Andrew, one more, do you have a joke?
Speaker 4:Why did the cowboy get a wiener dog?
Speaker 2:I'm afraid to know.
Speaker 4:He was told to get a long little doggy.
Speaker 2:Get a long little doggy, all right Okay.
Speaker 3:All right, none of us should quit our jobs. We should keep our day jobs.
Speaker 2:So International Joke Day. I thought would be on April 1st, but that's April Fool's, not Joke Day, so anyway.
Speaker 1:It does say that's important because April Fool's Day is just to you know, either prank people, the jokes to make people smile. So that's the differentiation.
Speaker 3:We did Okay.
Speaker 2:Now this is really an important one. This is only in the UK, but it probably could apply to a lot of places. It is national UK wrong trousers day. Wrong trousers day. What does that even mean? Well, it means that you're wearing the wrong pair of pants. Wrong trousers day. Have you ever? We're not going to ask you this one, guys have you ever gone to work or gone out and you just knew you had the wrong trousers on? I don't know how to answer this question. Has anybody important in your life ever told you you're wearing the wrong pair of pants?
Speaker 5:I guess I have worn pants backwards before. How do you wear pants backwards? Like sweatpants or something?
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, you realize, your pocket, your hands in your pockets and they're going backwards.
Speaker 2:How did you know they were backwards? Yes, how did you know they were backwards?
Speaker 5:I get you know, I just get mixed up.
Speaker 4:It was wrong trousers day, that should be my excuse I took my daughter to the dollar tree in my fuzzy puppy dog pajama pants one time uh, backwards, oh no, okay, you just did just weren't appropriate see, it's always when you wear like the sweatpants that you see people.
Speaker 1:Like you go to the store, you're like I won't see anybody. It's like either early in the morning or late at night, so you're just like grunged out. It's like when you see the most people you know. Hey.
Speaker 2:The month of July is my wedding anniversary. I think it was about 200 years ago, and so the day of my wedding we had our tuxes, except my pants didn't show up, and so I am at 10 o'clock and we're getting married at one o'clock in the afternoon. I am at the tux place on a Saturday going. I need my pants and they go. Well, we're really sorry. And so all my groomsmen were in their tuxes and everything. I had my tux on and blue jeans.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I wasn't really excited about that and I knew that my bride-to-be was probably not going to be too pleased when you know, back in the day you couldn't see each other.
Speaker 2:The day of the wedding you know, and so when he came out it was a big surprise or it was bad luck, or whatever. Yes, so I'm sweating it out, and about five minutes until one, here comes this car just barreling up into the parking lot. The guy ran out and he gave me the trousers that go with the tux. The only problem is that they were three sizes too big, and so I am completely holding my pants up during that. That was wrong. Trouser day at its worst. Oh, that's hilarious yeah.
Speaker 2:So one more thing it's International Chicken Wing Day for those of you that like chickens, so, and their wings especially. Yeah.
Speaker 3:LaMand do you have chickens still? I do, yeah, and can you believe? I just started letting them out to free range, and it is.
Speaker 2:Do you guys like chicken wings? Well, do the chickens know this Shh?
Speaker 3:they don't know it. Yes, and my favorite chicken wing is garlic Parmesan.
Speaker 2:Well, that's right here on the list Buffalo wings, different sauce varieties such as barbecue, ranch, garlic or Parmesan. The list is endless.
Speaker 3:When I'm around them, though, I just tell them I eat beef. Well, I guess that's a lie. We just started letting them walk around, and yesterday I was literally laying on my stomach in the grass videotaping them, because it was the greatest thing ever. And then I thought how do I do this and love them so much, and yet, at least five times a week, I'm eating chicken.
Speaker 2:This seems so morbid, but anyways when you come home with your Chick-fil-A cups and everything, chickens are going here she comes again.
Speaker 3:All right, enough of that, you all.
Speaker 2:We talked about said we're going to talk about kids today LaManda Hope Center staying pretty full most of the time with families and children and give us a little bit of an update on that, and then we're going to talk about what we're preparing for now for kids going back to school.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, we have averaged, for about two and a half years now, 50 kids a night. Sometimes that increases. We definitely see an increase often when the weather is so cold. We sometimes see an increase when it's really hot, because I think sometimes when families are doubled up, living with people, multiple families, for whatever reason, sometimes issues can arise or maybe they lose electricity. Just there's different reasons. But on average we are averaging 50 kids a day.
Speaker 3:And you know, on one hand, I'm so thankful that we've had the Hope Center, you know for over two decades now, and it's so great to know that the kids have a place that's safe, they have a place where there are, there's toys outside, there's a playhouse, there's predictability, they get snacked before bed. You know all of these things. The other side of it is I don't. I I can't say. I know how people feel, but I can only empathize how it feels to be a parent, to know that you love your children so much and that in this moment you can't provide a safe place. So our Hope Center is so anointed in a way where hopefully there is never embarrassment and that parents can always feel, hey, this is the place that you go, because we not only want to love your kids, we want to love you while you're still trying to love them.
Speaker 3:But the heartache about it too is I would love to live in a world where no child has to stay at a rescue mission. You know, and I would love to know that every kid is taken care of every day and loved and tucked into bed and sweet dreams, and it's just not the case. So we're really watching numbers, always trying to make sure that we take care of kids the best way that we can. It's a challenge Sometimes. You know it could be a challenge if you have one or two kids in your household. If you think about it, our staff puts 50. So it's not always easy.
Speaker 2:And those kids will be babies all the way to kids in high school. Yes, and everything in between.
Speaker 3:Yeah, kids will be babies all the way to kids in high school and everything in between.
Speaker 3:Yeah, last, I believe it was last summer, going into last fall, we had eight under the age of one. So and particularly those were single moms we did have some families and we had one single dad. But you know you've got babies juggling off times with scheduling, with sleep and crying and tummy aches and you've got that and next door you could have another family and all of that. So it's definitely a beautiful mess and it's definitely something that our staff is constantly juggling, but those kids are worth it.
Speaker 2:You know, amanda, one of the things that you've kind of alluded to is you try to normalize life for these families, even though they're in a homeless shelter, try to make it as normal as possible, even though it's not normal. As a former educator yourself, how important was it for kids to show up at the classroom first day of school and have the supplies that the other kids had. Maybe they couldn't, their parents couldn't afford the supplies. I know you worked in the lower income areas of school as a principal and so did you have kids sometimes that showed up and didn't have all the right supplies, and what was that like for the kid?
Speaker 3:Yeah, every year you know, every year, barry we had kids that didn't have what they needed. I want to backtrack real quick and then dive into that. When you talk about how we are trying to normalize children, stay while they're here. The team, our leadership, does a great job at really analyzing. What do we see other kids getting to do and what can we? What are our kids at the Hope Because we call them our kids what do our kids at the Hope Center get to do? And so just a couple of things, you know. I want to give kudos to Courtney and our trauma team and volunteers. They put on a kids camp every year, because camps yes, there's a lot of camps around Topeka all summer and many of them are free, but it's still a transportation issue or a timing issue or or maybe even being comfortable going somewhere outside of the rescue mission, which is their home now.
Speaker 3:Correct, and so it's just a big step sometimes for our people to even access that, and so a couple of weeks ago we did our kids camp, and there's photos on our Facebook page.
Speaker 2:I just saw one of the staff today and they're still tired.
Speaker 3:Yes, they are. I think, you know, when we do kids camp it might be equivalent of the tired we get with warming centers. Those might be equal. But those kids, they get to paint and they're out there playing and they get a snack and they get to do crafts, and so that's a great thing. You know, we every year, a couple years ago, started a fall festival and we do that for that, so that we can still celebrate around the time that some people are celebrating Halloween. We try to do it, as how do we fall for Jesus? How do we do what he wants us to do? And there's games and it truly is all hands on deck Staff sign up and that's all volunteer truly is all hands on deck, staff sign up and that's all volunteer. So those are just a couple of things in addition to the holidays and all of this that we do. And why do we do it? We do it one because that's how we're serving them. You know, the Bible didn't tell us serve the one in front of us or serve the least of these, and that excludes kids. They're still a being and we want to pour into them. Kids, they're still a being and we want to pour into them.
Speaker 3:You know, as a previous educator, it was extremely important for kids to have pencils and crayons and binders, because that is a part of their identity as a student. You know, I know people think I'm crazy when I say this, but I will say it every year. A doctor would not show up and not have his or her scrubs, or wouldn't go in to perform a surgery and not have utensils. If so, that identity is stripped, that doctor can no longer be a doctor. And sometimes I think we as adults, we think through things from our lens and our understanding and we don't realize that, from the age of three to four, to five to 18, that kiddo's job is school. That's what they're showing up for, and so what we try to do and I know many other amazing groups in this community we don't look at this back to school drive and trying to provide items and all of this as, oh, we have to do this or oh, this is just for fun.
Speaker 3:There's a very serious component in equipping kids with what they need for school. Um, I also equip equivalent this too. If I was going to a speaking event, I probably wouldn't feel great about doing it If I was in PJs. No shoes, holy socks wrong trousers wrong trousers, wrong trouser day.
Speaker 3:There's just something about when you're not prepared to do what's needed, you already feel defeated. And so, as an educator, um, we were so blessed. Depending on what school I was at, that depends on what community partner you had. But community partners really understood the why. It wasn't just to say, cliche, oh, kids need this. They understood that what happened that first day could potentially set the trajectory of that child's schooling for that next nine months.
Speaker 2:Research has shown that kids thrive when they feel safe, and safety is not just safe from violence, it's safe in regards to how their kids treat them or how they're looking in the mirror looking at themselves. When kids don't feel safe at school or going to and from school, they don't learn because they're focused on things, and so a lot of the children coming into Hope Center have come from unsafe places. Their families have come from unsafe places and tried to make this as safe as possible, not just physically, which it is, but also emotionally for them as well. And those basic things and we can't take them for granted. They're really, really important to not only the child but also the family to know that their kids aren't going to stand out when they go to that first day of school.
Speaker 3:And you know kiddos that aren't that don't have what they need. I just don't want us to have this knee jerk as adults. I don't want us to have this knee jerk reaction where we condemn the parents, because very seldom have I ever, if I even have, met a parent that looked at me as their child's principal or their child's teacher or now CEO of TRM, and said I don't care about my child, I don't care about their needs, and I, you know I have five kids and it is expensive. Looking at school supplies, and especially the older they get, it's hard. That is definitely a budgeted item. It's not something that I can just wait in August and go buy everything. We couldn't do it.
Speaker 3:And so when you look at people who are living on a fixed income, if you're looking at people who are, what I say working to live, that's hard, and so that's really our stance on what we're going to talk about today is it's really not our place to know what should be being done or why it's not being done. We see a need and we want to meet it, and we want to meet it with the dignity of the child, and we also want the parent to not have to be embarrassed or ashamed. We want them to know this is something we do gladly, because we too have needed the help before.
Speaker 2:So these kids staying in the Hope Center and it's not just the same 50. They're coming, leaving and other ones coming in, so that's kind of the average.
Speaker 2:There's a need to prepare not only for that first day of school but every day thereafter because new kids are coming in who maybe have lived in their car, maybe have dropped out of school for a while, who maybe have lived in their car, maybe have dropped out of school for a while.
Speaker 2:We've seen situations before where we've got older kids who are coming in, have not literally not been in school for up to five years Correct, and so having to work with the school district to get them caught back up and deal with all the trauma that went on of them being pulled out. And we weren't talking about homeschooling, we're talking about no schooling, living in very difficult situations and helping to get them to a place where they're stable, safe and basic supplies is a very important part of that. So the school districts put out to the parents supplies list and those parents can fill them sometimes and sometimes they can't maybe none at all or partially, because they don't have income. The rescue mission gets that supply list as well. So John, andrew and Andrew, not John Andrew, john and.
Speaker 2:Andrew, this is a big deal for distribution services and community services and needs that we have here, because it's not just kids at the Hope Center we're talking about, it's also for others in the community that are not being taken care of with another agency or organization. So, john, this isn't your first rodeo on this one, andrew, yours as well. So what are you doing to prepare for what will be early August of starting a distribution of these school supplies now, first of all to the children guests of the rescue mission and then to the community?
Speaker 5:Yeah, we're trying to get all of our ducks in a row so that this event can go off without a hitch and so just preparing to be able to again bless many people in our community. Like you said, both our Hope Center guests as well as folks in the community we definitely view this as an issue. That is one of those upstream issues. When you say upstream meaning trying to do prevention from families falling into homelessness, we don't want any families, those that are out there that are not in the rescue mission.
Speaker 2:in this regard, this can be one of those tools to help.
Speaker 5:Absolutely. We don't want a family to you know, when school starts, um kind of like Lamanda was saying, if you have a family with with multiple, with multiple children and they're getting these lists and we have four or five kids all needing things, we don't want a parent having to choose do I get them their school stuff or put food on the table, or do I pay the light bill or get them their things. So that's why we kind of do these drives every year to gather school supplies, make sure we take care of our Hope Center kiddos first, but then also go out to the community, and so we're preparing this year to hopefully help around 400 children.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's more than they're staying in the Hope Center, that's correct.
Speaker 5:Yep, yep, and so already, I mean, it's July 1st. I know a lot of people are in summer mode, but we are just trying to already get the ball rolling on getting supplies in and just a little over a month you start distributing these supplies, so you need them now, correct?
Speaker 2:Um so, andrew, uh, being in charge of distribution services, um, it's not just a bunch of stuff that shows up. You have to organize this stuff, right.
Speaker 4:Correct and we've been reviewing the school needs list and seeing if anything's changed on that. Um, and as John said, it's people are in summer mode and so they're not always thinking school supplies 1st of July and so we want to make sure that we take opportunities like this to remind people that you know, if you can think about it now and start donating, then it helps us in our preparation. So we've updated our Amazon list, we've updated our needs list on our website various things to try and inform people where our needs are, what we have. We're starting our inventory process. We've got our planning meetings going where we know who's doing what and where and how many.
Speaker 2:So how can somebody, if they want to help, find out how to help? You talked about these different lists. Where are those lists located? How can somebody do something?
Speaker 4:The primary list is on our website, trmonlineorg, and it goes to the back-to-school list. It's on the needs list, on the needs list down at back-to-school. And you can see everything that we are looking for, you know kind of prioritized there. Is it on the Facebook page as well? I think there's some.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's been some posts too, but we'll keep doing those.
Speaker 4:And that will increase as we get closer.
Speaker 2:Josh will blast it Sure and his new psychic, alex, will be there blasting it with him. Right, right right. Yeah, so somebody can find out different needs that are there and they can actually go to Amazon and have an order sent here. That's one way. Can somebody write in a designated gift to send a check in and say school supplies? Yes the answer. I see nodding heads. That's great for podcast guys. So, Josh, I'm asking this question Is there a special box that somebody can do online giving and check for school supplies at this point?
Speaker 2:I'm going to double check that there will be. There will be.
Speaker 3:Okay, there will be now, but right now, even when they donate, there's like a memo or something that they can put in the notes. They can put it back to school.
Speaker 2:They can go there. What if somebody Andrew wants to go out and do the shopping? They really like to do that, and some people do. They just love to go out and shop and a little more of that personal touch bring them to you. How can they do that?
Speaker 4:Well, they just simply show up at 401 Northwest Norse and my staff there will help them unload, and we'd be grateful to and what time should they try to make that happen Anytime? Between eight and three 45 weekdays.
Speaker 2:Weekdays eight and three 45. So if it's a, you're getting really the urge to go and shop at midnight. I guess nothing's open at midnight anymore. I think they're all closed you know the pandemic really did a number on us, but anyway. So those are the times and again those will be listed on the website when you can drop supplies off.
Speaker 3:While we're talking about this part, another neat thing is you know if people belong to small groups or they work in offices or whatever.
Speaker 3:This is a fun way to kind of do a drive together, you know, and it doesn't have to be big, you don't have to have a goal of bringing us a hundred items. But you know, if you meet with a small group once or twice a month and there's five families in it, if everybody could just bring three or four things of crayons, you put that together, you instantly have 15 to 20 things of crayons. Businesses, offices, things like that. Just kind of spreading the word too is so helpful, especially with the need of the supplies but also backpacks to put them in, and pencil boxes and just things like that. So we've seen some groups do that and when they do it's such a blessing. But I really would like to see that increase, because it's just good when you're doing good and we don't always have to do that within our own families we can kind of spark that interest and ignite and inspire some others around us to do the same.
Speaker 2:So if you're in an office or your church group, social community service group, whatever, you can go and do the same thing as a group to be able to collect and say, adopt 10 kids or whatever, and that's a pretty easy thing to do. So Rescue Mission kids and families are going to be attended to with the guest services here to be able to get them connected with the distribution for their kids. So if somebody is in the community right now, some parent finds out about the Topeka Rescue Mission and this isn't the first time. There's some that know about this already. But if they don't, how can they find out where to sign up? Because it's not just show up, it's sign up and you're targeting, as John you said, over 400 this year and so that's a large number, which means a lot of supplies. But how do I find out if I have children, if I can take advantage of this?
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely. We will have a JOT form that goes live on July 21st for people to sign up and register their family or their different children. We'll be able to put a little information about what age are they in so that we know kind of what specific school supplies are they need Are they going to need? You know, sometimes a high schooler needs different school supplies than a first grader.
Speaker 2:I'm going to represent old school here. What in the world is a JotForm, and where do you find it?
Speaker 5:Yeah, a JotForm is just an online fillable form that will be going out on our website. It'll be going out on Facebook. Basically anywhere that you can interact with TRM Online's presence, you will be able to find that Again, that's going to go live July 1st and people can Like today July 21st, 21st.
Speaker 2:July 21st, 21st, okay, so hang on y'all. Correction correction 19 days. So you go to the trmonlineorg that's the website and then there'll be this very clearly if you need help for school, and it's called a jot form, so you don't really need to know that, you just need to just fill it out, right?
Speaker 3:Okay, yep, good for me. And it will also be on our Facebook page, and the neat thing about that is there will be a share option at the bottom of that, and so people that are on Facebook can also share it.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:To kind of spread the word on that.
Speaker 2:So I fill the form out. I've got two or three kids. I filled it out, and then how am I going to know that I've been selected? And then I want to talk about once I'm selected, then what's next? So how am I going?
Speaker 5:to know that it worked. When you fill out that form, you will get a confirmation that the form was received and, essentially, if you fill it out and get that confirmation, then we will be prepared to serve you on our distribution date.
Speaker 2:That confirmation comes via an email. Correct, because we're assuming at this point, if somebody's online, they've already got some kind of access to the tech here. So, even if you're at the library filling this out or somewhere else, if you have an email address and anybody can get one of those, then that's how you're going to get confirmed, correct, okay?
Speaker 5:Correct, and so just some other important dates and I'll make sure I get these right, since I rushed past the date of the form earlier. But our community distribution for community members will be on August 6th and that's going to be from 10 am to 6 pm. Again, there's going to be a lot more notes going out about that, but on August 6th, from 10 am to 6 pm, people can come and pick up their school supplies if they're registered with us that one day.
Speaker 2:Correct, so that could be like 300 or so. That one day. There will be Will there be like times that I'm scheduled for, or is it just that day I'm notified to come?
Speaker 5:They'll just be able to come. During that time We'll be prepared, and so that's our plan of action this year is that we are going to be prepared for the amount of people that we have signed up and that will have their stuff if they show up.
Speaker 2:So that means a lot of supplies all organized, ready to hand out to people who have already signed up. So those kids have and, by name, you're going to hand them their bag, because high school is going to have a different need than somebody who's in kindergarten. So, Andrew, that means like a lot of volunteers.
Speaker 4:Exactly where I was thinking. We can't do this alone, like most of what we do at TRM. We can't do this without our community partners, without our volunteers Staff is know just to try and fill some of those needs ahead of time, so that we can be prepared for a flood of three to 400 people.
Speaker 2:And I imagine it's going to be like it's been in years past, that some volunteers always come back every year to do this. So they're kind of seasoned, trained and they can help train others. Okay, so a lot of people coming on the 6th from the community, a lot of people sometimes with their kids in tow right, because they can't go park them somewhere or they bring them in. So kids come into this room and there's all this cool stuff around. So how do you manage that? Because you know, as kids, sometimes I want this, I want that. How do you deal with that?
Speaker 4:Well, we have volunteers that will assist when they're there to shop or staff members that will assist them shopping, because, like we said, we look for what they need, right, if they're, you know, a young child, they need different things than a high school student, and so we make sure that we meet those needs. We have some extra goodies that we can provide, sometimes maybe a snack or some clothes. It's called bribes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a little bit of something.
Speaker 4:Okay, good To help them you know.
Speaker 3:Incentives, barry, incentives.
Speaker 4:That's a principle in me coming out and the other fun thing about having the kids there on site is they can pick their backpack and you can see a kid who may or may not have a lot of choices dig through and find a Minecraft backpack or whatever, and he's all excited and his buddies come and they try to find their own to match and it becomes a an opportunity for them to really get excited about back to school, which not all the kids are excited about back to school. So, right, well, it just kind of sets it so describe just a little bit.
Speaker 2:I mean, this is kind of the system, how it's going to work and uh, and there's a lot of moving parts yet to come into play, a lot of supply still needed. I'm guessing you don't have it already. You have 400 that you're going to try to take care of and so people can go and find out how to participate in this. We've talked about the system, how people can get there and taken care of a little bit about how it looks the day of Talk about the experience. What is the experience that you guys are aware of? It's really hard sometimes to enjoy the journey or the experience because you're in the weeds of trying to make sure all the parts are connected.
Speaker 2:But what do you hear? What do you remember from? Like last year, previous times here, lamanda jump in on this too about the children, and you mentioned about the Minecraft backpack. You know I think that's probably every boy that I know wants the Minecraft thing, so please donate a lot of Minecraft backpacks. I still haven't figured out what that game is, but I've tried. I really have got a couple of kids that I'm doing some mentoring with that are junior high and I've done Minecraft with them twice.
Speaker 2:They say I do pretty good, I still don't have any idea what I did. But anyway and actually I got for Christmas they gave me a Minecraft for dummies book, and so that's how big Minecraft is and I don't understand the book either. So but anyway, the experience. Kids come in, they get to pick out their backpack, which is awesome. You have these incentives. You have different things. What do what do you? What do you hear from the parents? What do you hear from the kids?
Speaker 4:I hear relief, this, this. I didn't know if this was going to happen. Sometimes it's last minute. I missed an opportunity before and I couldn't you know and they come in and they find something or I'm so glad you're available to do this. I wasn't sure my kids were going to start with a level playing field or have you know the clothes that they needed. It's not always about the school supply. Sometimes it's clothes. Sometimes I hear volunteers saying this is the highlight of my year because I get to see kids get excited about school and so we can remove some barriers that they had before them. Beforehand. It might have been financial or just opportunity with their supplies. Here it yeah, and we can serve Christ in that way.
Speaker 3:You know, I was going to say it's also not just a blessing for those we serve, it's a blessing for us that are doing it and it's also sometimes, uh, growing for our staff, myself included. So one of the issues and I've talked about this before on the podcast one of the things that challenges me every day, not every other day, not once a week, every single day in this role, is to find the balance of having faith, full faith in the Lord to provide, but then also being a doer, and because God gives us the wisdom and the mind and all of that to do his work, but then we don't do it on our own like he provides. And so I chuckled because I don't remember what year it was, but we did not have enough paper, we didn't have enough pencils. There was one other item, and so I was in 206 and I was praying and I was like, lord, we're doing this tomorrow morning and it was like eight o'clock at night, okay, Did he listen to the podcast?
Speaker 2:Did he not know?
Speaker 3:Apparently I just needed him and you know it's so funny because I know the Lord is not in heaven going shoot.
Speaker 1:I forgot to go get the supplies for the back to school yeah.
Speaker 3:But that's where I'm growing, right. So I'm by myself and I'm in 206 and I'm looking around and I'm like we need paper pencils and for the life of me I can't remember remember what the third one was. And I'm praying and I'm like Lord, what do we do? Because right now I really just want to go take my own personal credit card and go buy it, bring it back so that I know at 9 PM everything's ready for this 830, nine o'clock distribution.
Speaker 2:It's been responsible, right? You don't want the kids disappointed the next day.
Speaker 3:Correct. And then I was like God, like they're coming, we're going to be lifting this door and they're there, we don't have this. So surely this is I'm supposed to go and do this, right? So, anyways, some other staff members I'm wrestling with them because I try. Part of my leadership is when I know the answer. Great, I know the answer and I try to do it, but I'm very vulnerable with my leadership to be like I don't have an answer to this. So we're going to go to the Lord and pray. Anyways, I took the controlling way and so we went and we bought supplies.
Speaker 2:So keep your receipt.
Speaker 3:No, that was another thing, but anyways, 845 at night, people aren't shopping for the supplies, and I am not kidding. Next morning it was either 830, nine o'clock we open. It is not the first person there to give us or to get their stuff, it is someone in a car, and the back of the car, when they pop the back open, was literally three boxes of paper. I don't know how many boxes of pencils and whatever this other item was. I'm wanting to say rulers, but that that may be a fib and I wasn't there. And so the team text me and they said well, one of them. It said wrong and it was just the word wrong across the screen and I was like what's wrong? They were like we were wrong, we shouldn't have been shopping. Last night at eight 30, the Lord provided and showed me the table and literally everything on the table was what we didn't have. So that will stick with me forever because I am type A and OCD yes, and then I struggle again.
Speaker 3:So there's those moments. There's another moment, Barry, that the staff called me and said, hey, we're over our quota and we anticipate another 15 or 20 that haven't come. They will come.
Speaker 2:So you've done everybody you were intended to do.
Speaker 3:Everyone. More people are coming because they need to sign up or something Correct, and then they hear about it or stuff fell through last minute. Now they realize they need this when they thought they had the money to do it. And so we had a family that had 11 kids and I.
Speaker 2:Five is a lot, uh-huh.
Speaker 3:Try 11. 11. And so the team. You know, our default is always compassion, right, and sometimes that's hard, because then it's well, what are we going to do now? Um, so team calls me and they're like you know, I've spoken to this parent there's 11 kids, um, but we don't have the supplies. And I said what do you mean? We don't have the supplies, like we don't have the backpacks. We can probably put together some other things, um, and we've already spent this part of our budget.
Speaker 3:And I just sighed and they were like but we cannot turn away 11 kids. And I'm like you're right, we can't. And I said so, the Lord's going to provide, and he's either going to provide someone to donate extra money for something else, or we're going to get the supplies, extra money for something else, or we're going to get the supplies. And then I'm sitting there and then the staff member goes do you believe that or are you like trying to convince yourself of it? Right, and I was like maybe a little bit of both, because we're also going to have other people show up and all of that. So, um, we had told the parent we'd call them the next day, um, to confirm. And I told the team. I said we're going to say yes, but I don't know what this looks like. Kid, you not?
Speaker 3:The team is at Norris next morning, somehow. We get another donation and it's 11 backpacks 11, not 10, not 12, 11. And all 11 were filled with supplies. And so the team called me back again and was like he did it again.
Speaker 3:I'm like, who did what? It's silly, right, they're like the Lord. And I'm like, okay, let's start with that Um. And so it's almost comical because we pour so much of our heart into this, whether it's um, us as donors, us as staff, us as prayer warriors, like TRM is such an incredible family and it's amazing, but we have to never forget that we have a father that cares for all of his children and that we as staff are not exempt from that. He cares about us too, and we're on our own journey as we try to serve others. That he's teaching us how to trust on him, how to lean on him and to provide, and that he cares more than we ever could, and I could go on and on with stuff that I personally have been taught through this part of our ministry, just in full transparency. It's definitely a growing opportunity for me every year.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I think it's there's a lot that we could say about all that and we have at different times. But you know, just to highlight that piece, you do everything you can and then you can't do it all. So you have a choice Either say we're done, we can't do anymore, or something special has to come about. To get 11 backpacks alone would have been quite a deal.
Speaker 3:The very next day.
Speaker 2:But filled with supplies, is a whole nother level and that is. That's just that kind of a special. Okay, you did everything you can. I got this, I'm going to bring it and use a human agent to do it. They didn't drop out of the sky. Somebody went out and did it.
Speaker 3:And that person also was from out of town. Yeah, how far out of town 45 minutes, okay, and knew a couple of places where they could donate. Didn't feel right about it. I don't know if the person's a believer or not. I wasn't involved in that part of it, but didn't feel right. And so the person looked up back to school giveaways or something online, found ours, drove here 45 minutes and dropped it off and had no clue. We were waiting on 11 sets of this for this family.
Speaker 2:That's the other part of the story. I mean that goes on. I mean there's so many times. You know, what comes to my mind one time is the guys were serving dinner in the kitchen one time and they'd been having the normal stuff but one guy came off the streets. He says man, you got any fried chicken? No, we don't have fried chicken. Man, I just had this craving for fried chicken. Well, I'm sorry, we're going to have what we're going to have, right? There's a knock on the door right about dinner time. It was a Catholic priest here in town and he said we had a big dinner plan and we got it canceled. We have a whole bunch of fried chicken, would you guys like it? And so this guy's watching this happen. You know that's coming off the streets and he goes no, how did you guys know, could you, did you? No, that was just one of those special little winks from God. Hey, you're not alone in this, even if it's something that simple.
Speaker 3:And you know, barry, I think so. These are great examples. The other thing, though, that I'm not sure I do a good enough job communicating. I don't know how you feel about when you were ED, but sometimes God provides, but doesn't provide in that moment, like immediately, which are cool moments, right Stuff that just etched on your heart.
Speaker 2:You can't presume it's always going to happen the same way.
Speaker 3:Correct. And that is this challenge of the rescue mission I guess I could say is sometimes the Lord provides and he provides months out and you, you're walking in faith, going well. I don't want to be dumb with finances, I want to be a wise steward. But we've got this need. I know the Lord didn't forget to do it, but we need to do it. So, for instance, this year um, and then I'll hush I just feel led to say this this year, in the four years I have been here unplanned expenses.
Speaker 3:And when we do the budget, we budget for inflation, we budget for just normal increases. We give 10% buffers. We look at it literally. We don't just look at it and go what are we spending at the shelter? It is down to supplies, that's how specific it is, and it's months of processes, right, but you just can't plan for a dish dryer is going to mess up and in the same kitchen, in addition to the dish dryer, our tilt skillet goes out and the same thing with the tilt skillet. It's this, this and this, multiple different things, Box trucks I mean just all of this stuff. Water heaters.
Speaker 3:Yes, showers being messed up in the shelter, I mean, I could go on and on, and so probably four or five months in I'm wrestling with the Lord going God. I'm nervous because the community needs to know and wants to know when we're facing challenges they can donate and support. We're seeing the need of food rise, food costs are increasing, all this stuff. But then we have to balance it because I have to be careful with what we say, with our expense needs and all of that, to not sound the alarm that TRM is shutting down right. So somewhere in the middle is truly communicating when we have needs, doing it in a way that's not alarming but it's honest, but then also knowing when we're not supposed to communicate because God's going to come through. So we have all of this and for a couple of months, even conversations with my board president and the board like, yep, we're having a lot of opportunities this year to fix things. We're going to look at it that way and nothing Right. And the board then also is walking in faith saying, well, those are the things we need to serve people in a very dignified way. We're going to do it, we're going to do it this way and we're going to trust. We've done that now three times this year. We've had the money. We can pay for things I'm not saying that, but it's stuff that was not in our budget, right, and we would rather be spending money on other things. However, the board's like, nope, we're going to do this, I'm going to do this, we're going to commit it to prayer. There have been three times now that we've done that and within the next seven days, we get either an estate that we weren't planning on or we have a donor that says, hey, I just felt led to give an additional $500 this month, those kinds of things, and we give God glory for all of that.
Speaker 3:Now, it would have been nice that, as soon as we had to spend that money on the tilt skillet, to have money to pay for the tilt skillet, right, but that was months later, and so now our team is looking at those capital projects and other expenses and, yes, it looks like those are expenses, are high, but God is also blessed in other ways months later, yeah, so you know, I'm just as much in a growing stage, even at the CEO level of my faith and walking in knowing the Lord will provide. And how do we balance. We're still doing and we're staying the course, even when it's hard and it's challenging and it's murky, and but yet not being embarrassed to ask the community to support, whether it's school supplies or money or food or volunteering time or prayer warriors. So it's it's so amazing to be a part of this, but it's also. There are so many unknowns and I just know the father's like but I've got it all, I've got it all and uh, just a bit of advice.
Speaker 2:You're always going to be in that place for the rest of your life, whether it's here at the rescue mission or anywhere you go. Is that what is the balance between faith and action? Yes and um, it's not always the same. And so, yes, talking about what we're talking about today, letting people know how they can help, being involved in this I'm going to hit that one more time before we go. But one last thing you all representing volunteers, other staff who are investing in this, donors investing in this, what is your understanding of the value, not only of a kid walking into school the first day having the supplies that the other kids have, not feeling like they stand out as a homeless kid from the rescue mission or an impoverished neighborhood that doesn't have enough. Their families don't have enough. Beyond that, helping them to feel safe when they're here at the rescue mission.
Speaker 5:What is the value 10, 20 years from now in what you're doing? Yeah, I think there's immeasurable value. I think a tangible value that comes immediately is just to have we want our young people to have that sense of confidence right, that's so important in their development and just feeling the dignity that they have. And so if you're walking into school and you don't have it, you know many of the folks that we're serving there's already barriers there that maybe some of their peers from more affluent backgrounds might not have. And so just to add one more of and I don't have my stuff, or maybe I got some.
Speaker 5:You know, I don't like my backpack design and that's why it's so special to see someone come in and pick out a backpack that they like it's a color that they like or they you know the design that they like and they have their things and they can come in and be prepared.
Speaker 5:And also just to see those volunteers as they're serving, to know that there are people who took time out of their day and money out of their wallet to get these supplies and to smile and interact with them and give it to them for their parents to know that the community is wrapping around and supporting them. And so maybe that high schooler or that middle schooler might not fully appreciate it in the moment, right, but going back and looking back later in life just to see that there were people there who gathered around, who helped support and seeing a community do that for one another, that not to have the attitude of, well, those aren't my kids, so it's not my problem, but to rally around each other to support each other, to just treat each other with dignity, help build one another up, build up the confidence for the young people in our community and just exemplify that dignity that they have and to show the love of Christ through these little actions that add up.
Speaker 2:That's really well said. The universal question that we all have, wherever we are on the planet, from day one till the last day, is do I matter? And a lot of folks that find themselves in need kind of wonder sometimes do I matter? And even a small thing like a toy, like a place to live, some food to eat during a really rough time, school supplies, the Minecraft backpack or whatever Somebody said I mattered, and that sticks with these kids and it sticks with their parents and I can tell you, being in the position I was for as long as I was, there were kids that came back and reflected back about the time that they were at the rescue mission, really tough time in their lives, but they knew that something was special there. They can't define it necessarily, but it was a springboard to yeah, I mattered. And because of that and other opportunities in their life, they are out in our community today and around the country being very successful because people let them know they mattered.
Speaker 4:And I think that's an outreach of evangelism. I mean St Francis said you know, preach the gospel at all times, when necessary use words Use words when necessary. And these are sermons. That's right, as we're able to reach out and meet a need and we have crosses on our stuff. We're representing Christ. People know that and they know I matter. And I don't just matter to these people, I matter to this God they represent. It's not a religion.
Speaker 2:It's a relation.
Speaker 3:And you're not just particularly with some of the bigger things we do, like the back to school, christmas time, thanksgiving needs things like that. What I really want people to understand is you're not just planting a seed, you're planting an orchard. An orchard. And what I mean by that is if you think about, let's say, we do have 400 kids that are equipped. We have no idea what those 400 kids are doing with those supplies. You've got kids who are drawing pictures and maybe they're going to be an artist. You've got kids who are doing mathematical problems and they might be an engineer. You have kids who are using calculators to end up being architects. I mean, there's just you don't know. What I do know is that it equips them for, in that moment, to know that they've got a purpose, and that might not even make sense to them at five or 15. But these are not just one off things, because it's consistency has been here since 1953. And we talk about planting the seeds, we talk about serving the one in front of us, and all of that is so true and so beautiful. But if only, if only we had the to see, from God's view, what TRM has done. I bet it's just incredible when you see the thousands who have been sheltered, the thousands who have been fed, the thousands of kids who have had school supplies, and sometimes those ways we help turn into what community deems successful. We've got people now who are realtors, we've got people who are in law enforcement. We've got people now who have beautiful homes. All of this stuff because of TRM and those things are incredible.
Speaker 3:But there's also beautiful stuff that happened. That's really not beautiful. You know, I was in visiting the women's prison a couple of months ago and had several people come up to me and say man, trm helped me with this, trm helped me with that approaching in the next two to three years possibly getting out, and all three women wanted to be able to somehow give back. And those three women were taking classes. A couple of them were taking spiritual classes and then one of them was taking some other things.
Speaker 3:All this being said, one woman came up to me and she said she remembered being able to be fed as a kid here, and then her struggle didn't turn beautiful, it didn't, it didn't become successful. The struggle continued when she was in early, early adulthood and she had her own kids and she said I remembered the place that fed me. So when she got out of a bad relationship, she came here with one of her daughters I believe it was a daughter and she said I just knew I could because they had already helped me before. And then she said right now my mom has my daughter until I can get out and my mom utilizes TRM to help my daughter. And so to me I could look at everything that's hard there, right Multi-generational poverty, prison, incarceration, all this stuff and those things are hard and I empathize with that whole family. But then there is also beauty that a mother who is now a grandmother, a mother who was once a daughter and now a daughter all three of them have been able to count on TRM.
Speaker 3:Staff come and go, volunteers come and go, donors come and go. But regardless of what you're doing in that season, I can assure you, if you're a prayer warrior, donor, staff member, volunteer, you are helping so much in the moment. But then, when that remains consistent, and we constantly have donors and we constantly have volunteers and we constantly have staff members willing to be in the trenches to do this that it is ongoing support in ways that we are not sure. I don't think we'll ever know the impact. We can't see it the way the father sees it, but it's not just planting seeds. Trm has extremely done a good job, extremely of planning orchards all over. If we could just see it that way.
Speaker 2:Life is messy and it gets really messy for some folks, and TRM and its supporters, its volunteers, its staff have been called and decided to get involved in the mess and so being there and being a light.
Speaker 2:Not everything has the same outcome, the same way, but yet there is still light in people's darkness, in the mess, and so thank you all for being here, thank you for what you're doing.
Speaker 2:This is really all hands on deck. Time now to get those school supplies in. You can go to trmonlineorg find a needs list on there. Also, if you are in need, the 21st of July is going to be that time that you can go to that same website and be able to sign up and then, on the 5th, taking care of kids at the Hope Center and then, on the 6th, the 300-plus people coming through those doors 350 maybe coming through the doors of the distribution center that day to be able to get a little bit of light in their life and help kids, not only for now and for that first day of school, but also potentially a great impact in their lives. Thank you all for listening to our community, our mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission. Again, if you'd like more information, you could go to trmonlineorg. That's trmonlineorg. Thank you for being a part of our community, our mission.