Our Community, Our Mission
Our Community, Our Mission
Ep #276 – Heat, Hope, and Humanity
As temperatures rise, so does the risk for our unsheltered neighbors. This episode of Our Community, Our Mission highlights how TRM’s outreach teams are responding to the dangerous summer heat with practical care and deep compassion. You’ll hear how connection and consistency made all the difference for one woman who had slipped through every gap in the system—and how everyday acts of advocacy can change lives. We also share how TRM’s Back to School drive will equip 400 children with supplies and offer free vision screenings in partnership with the Lions Club, helping families stretch tight budgets while setting kids up for a strong start to the school year.
The episode explores the urgency and intentionality behind summer outreach—like offering cut fruit, electrolyte drinks, and popsicles during wellness checks in the heat. These items may seem simple, but they open the door to relationship, trust, and transformation. Whether it’s meeting someone where they are or helping a child see the board clearly in class, it’s all part of a bigger mission: standing in the gap for those who need it most.
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Dear Heavenly Father. We thank you, lord, for this day and your blessings and provisions. God, thank you for this time to record this podcast and, lord, for all of our wonderful listeners. Lord, pray that they would be blessed and encouraged by this episode. And, lord, as we enter into this extreme heat wave, lord, we just pray for all of our unsheltered neighbors, god, that you would just keep them safe, that you would help us to provide the resources to them that are needed. And, lord, we just thank you for the community that also provides those things. Lord, I pray your blessing over this time in Jesus name, amen.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, thank you for listening to our community, our mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission. I'm your host today, barry Feaker, here on Tuesday, july 22nd. I'm your host today, barry Feeker, here on Tuesday, july 22nd 2025. And this is episode number 276. We have LaManda, cunningham, marion Crable kind of usuals here on the podcast, to say the least Our CEO and Deputy Director of Supportive Services here, and so we're going to talk about an issue that I think everybody is thinking about right now because of the heat and so forth. But before we get to that, we have to honor the Research and Development Department of Topeka Rescue Mission for the incredible research that they do to try to help us understand the value and the importance of the day. And so we start out with and Josh is down here smiling because he is our Research and Development Department ie Google. It is today. I'm sure that most people weren't aware of this it is World Brain Day. World Brain Day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, interesting, somebody had to think about that one didn't they, they did. With their brain.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Isn't it kind of weird to think the brain thought of itself Like, hey, I want a day to honor myself. That's right, the think like the brain, like thought of itself like, hey, I want a day to honor myself.
Speaker 3:That's right. Brain had to think of that, I don't know, and you could kind of think that it's sort of a no-brainer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh, do we have any of those sound?
Speaker 2:effects yeah I don't know. Yeah, yeah, well, sometimes our brains think for us instead of us thinking for our brains so anyway, but on july 22nd every year this is celebrated annually around the world. I never knew about it before because I'm a no brainer.
Speaker 2:So, but anyway, brain health is very important. I think we begin to learn more and more about that, in regards to things that we'd even do at the rescue mission and with our neighbors who are needing help, whether they're sheltered or unsheltered, in regards to how trauma has affected their brain. Right, mary.
Speaker 3:Exactly, and that, to me, has been one of the biggest learnings for me as we think about that trauma. I always think of trauma as being kind of this emotional impact, but there are real physical impacts to your brain because of trauma, and so we've learned so much about that and it changes our perspective on people's behavior.
Speaker 2:It certainly does help us to understand some behavior sometimes and why some people just can't quite get where we think maybe they should go until we address some of the issues of the injury to the brain. And it does have a physical reshaping of the brain in regards to trauma. So one of the things that is an antidote to any kind of brain trauma is what else is known for this day, and it's National Hammock Day.
Speaker 3:Hammock Day- what's a hammock?
Speaker 2:Do you have those in Arkansas, any hammocks?
Speaker 4:We have hammocks.
Speaker 2:What's a hammock? Hey, I want everybody to know. Amanda Cunningham has recently just discovered in Iola, Kansas, that there is A&W restaurants. She has never known about that before.
Speaker 4:And she thinks it's the best thing. Yes, I knew that there was A&W root beer. I just didn't know a restaurant was a thing. But my heart is happy, and at almost 40 years, old. I'm experiencing it.
Speaker 2:So she goes to Iola every week. Now to get a beer float, and so no, I know what hammocks down in Arkansas are called. Go to bed at night, right.
Speaker 4:Yes, that's right. You just go out in your hammocks and everybody's got their own hammock in Arkansas. Yes, that's what we do.
Speaker 2:That's what you do, no, but.
Speaker 4:I do have a hammock now and I have. I have also fallen out of a hammock. So when we're talking about drama to the brain, every now and then, when I go to get in it, I'm like Lord, let this not happen. Like it happened.
Speaker 2:So it can help you with brain trauma. It could create some. That's correct how you hang your hammock.
Speaker 4:Have you ever been in a hammock? You're so big.
Speaker 3:I'm so tall, I knew it. Oh, she was Huh.
Speaker 1:Oh no.
Speaker 3:Huh, not Barry has trauma and our brains are so connected. As soon as you said it, I'm like oh no, she means Tom. Yeah, look at her coming to my rescue.
Speaker 2:So now we understand the problem with brain, with some people they just don't have a filter. But anyway, yeah, I've been in a big hammock and a small hammock. I don't care for hammocks because they're hard to get in and they're really hard to get out. I was going to say but once you get to rocking those babies, you can get out pretty easy. Whether the rope breaks or the tree breaks, you can get out, or you fall out, or you fall out. That's right.
Speaker 1:Coming down.
Speaker 2:And so then you look at it and you go well, I'm not getting back into that thing, not doing that again. Broke your hammock day. That's right. Okay, all right. So, anyway, one more. Okay. And Amanda, I'm going to pass this one to you because you're a former educator. Uh-huh, yep, it's casual pie day, and I don't mean P-I-E Casual pie day.
Speaker 4:I have never heard of this.
Speaker 2:Oh, I've heard of Pi Day, me too, but never casual, which is in March. Yes, because that's the whole 314. So would you explain what Pi is versus Apple pumpkin, those kind?
Speaker 4:of things. Can we just move on?
Speaker 1:I know, All right, all right, wait, wait, wait.
Speaker 3:I'm sure this is interesting.
Speaker 2:This is interesting Research and development, not letting this one go without jumping in.
Speaker 1:You can't just skip by this because, yes, pi Day is 3.14, right, you know March 14th. So this one is interesting because the fraction 22 over 7 actually gives you pi 3.14, and on and on. Yeah, we did that, we did that so 22, 7, 7, 22 is casual Pi Day oh.
Speaker 3:Interesting.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, so that's why it is 7, day. Oh interesting, oh wow, never knew. So that's why it is 722. Yeah, yeah, wow.
Speaker 1:It's the fraction for Pi.
Speaker 2:That's interesting so obviously Research and Development Department didn't have any brain damage because they got that they did and so they're supposed to. I had to read it a couple times.
Speaker 3:Don't admit to that.
Speaker 1:I actually did it on my calculator. I was like really Like 25 or 22 divided by seven. Oh, it does there you go.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to remember this next time we have casual PIE day and we're going to go have some pie Exactly this kind of pie.
Speaker 1:So what's the difference between a casual pie and a formal pie? Though I'm waiting, I wish I had a punchline, I don't know.
Speaker 4:That's just a question. You hung that out there kind of in a way. If we're talking food, I think a pie pie is like pie dish and all that. To me, cobbler is like an informal pie.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I just made one agree. I agree with that. Um, if it's got crust or correct, that's a pie cobbler's called a pie failure.
Speaker 2:so that's that pie Cobblers call a pie failure.
Speaker 4:That's what I make, Barry? What are you saying? That's what I. I can make cobblers, I cannot make pies. Have you ever had like?
Speaker 1:a dump cake. Yes, like you just dump everything in.
Speaker 2:That's the casual pie, that's right, there you go, except that's cake. I must be pretty casual.
Speaker 1:Oh, josh cake. Well, but never mind, it's still fruit filling, let's get this podcast going.
Speaker 2:I got to go buy mine, I got to go to Walmart and get a hammock, so anyway, An extra large.
Speaker 4:Yes, yes, oh, my word, I'm trying to like visualize myself, who is 5'2", 5'3, on a good day and the struggle.
Speaker 2:I've had with hammocks. Have you ever seen Shaquille O'Neal in a hammock?
Speaker 3:No, Never, I know. That's why I was wondering if you were successful. Yeah, no, yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I look like a little kid to Shaquille, but anyway. So, moving on into things that people are going to be less interested in but still important, we have back to school coming up. We do, yes. So school coming up and so, um, that's an annual event. Every year it's been posted out on Facebook some things on the website of TRM and about how people can participate in that. Uh, lamanda, miriam, any ballpark, again, numbers that we think may kids may be helped this year from Topeka rescue mission.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we are aiming at doing 400. Um, so, just because that's kind of on average what we've done the past several years, um, one of the plugs, I would say. Um, in regards to kind of the information that Miriam's going to give, I've seen a lot of um questions being asked on Facebook. Um, and what I've noticed is and I just wanted to highlight this real quick there's a lot of like Topeka Mamas groups and Topeka events pages and things like that, and there's a lot of people anonymously posting on there and I'm paraphrasing but I'm embarrassed to need help. But I'm needing school supplies for my kiddos. Where can I go? And I mean, I'm not joking, I've seen six in the last probably 48 hours and so I've really tried to be vigilant about posting the graphic and stuff that we have on that.
Speaker 4:But I just wanted to say like, if you are listening to this and you are someone that's in need, please know, not, not just ours.
Speaker 4:There's a couple of different giveaways that if maybe it's closer to you that you access.
Speaker 4:Just know that, from what I know, all of us are doing it with the right heart and we don't want shame, we don't want embarrassment tied to it. We recognize that one school supplies are expensive period, but in today's day and age it's even more with inflation and costs. So my heart has just really um been kind of tugged the last couple of days, one recognizing how many moms, dads, grandmas I've seen a couple of posts that are grandparents saying they're caring for their grandkids and they need help with this Um, so my heart has just been tugged and not wanting people to be embarrassed that they need this hand up, that we all go through things that we do, the other side of it is, if you're seeing those posts you know, please share our back to school drive. If there's other ones that you know about, share those because that might be closer for the people. It's just really a time over these next four weeks to really wrap around as a community and help people who are in struggling places help.
Speaker 2:I think most people understand the importance if you were a kid at one time to be in school with the right amount of supplies like your peers have not to kind of stand out, and that includes today, backpacks. Kids are using backpacks to carry all their stuff around, and that's a need still of some more backpacks, if I understand it.
Speaker 3:Yes, that's probably our number one need right now is backpacks of all different sizes, all different types, for little kids, for older kids, so a variety of backpacks, and then we also have a significant need for highlighters and composition notebooks everything that people, people need, we need right now. But backpacks is a huge, huge need.
Speaker 2:So if people don't remember, they can go to the website at trmonlineorg, and where do they then press the button to find out what that need list is?
Speaker 3:They can go to the needs tab. Just the needs tab, exactly, and it will be at the top of that list on what we're needing for back to school.
Speaker 2:Okay, very good, and then they can bring them to the distribution center to pick a rest. Commission Monday through Friday. Eight to three is the time.
Speaker 3:Yes, and that's at 401 Northwest Norris.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 4:And I also wanted to say, you know, in case people are kind of like, why does TRM do a back to school drive? You know how does that tie into. So I just want to share from my perspective as as CEO I do hope in the future, possibly next year, that maybe some of us that are doing the drives can get together and have some collaboration to and it might be, barry, that our community does need the five to 10 to 15 drives that are happening because of location, because of quantities, those kinds of things. So I'm not saying we need less of them, I just want to, in the future, really make sure we're all working together just because resources are lower than some other arenas, with food distribution and other kinds of help too.
Speaker 2:So it makes sense that that would be a goal in the future.
Speaker 4:Yes. So that is something that's on my radar, and if we can help support other ones in different ways, we want to do that, and vice versa. The other piece to this is I wanted to explain the reason. One of the reasons why we continue to do this is it's a way for us to be both proactive and upstream, as well as reactive to those experiencing homelessness. So, on one hand, our drive that we do blesses the 50 kids in the Hope Center.
Speaker 2:That are currently there.
Speaker 4:Correct. Now, not all 50 of those kids are school age. Some of them are infants, zero to five, not going to school yet, but I would say right now we're probably looking at at least 27 to 34 of those will be school age kids, and so those are kiddos experiencing homelessness, that their safe refuge and their meals and their clothing and all of that is completely coming from TRM I think it's important to know, too, that there's 50 kids, or the number, that are school age are not the only ones that will benefit from this who will be coming the rest of the school year Correct, because some children will be coming in that aren't here right now because, the homeless situation.
Speaker 2:The ones that are here, hopefully, are going to get housed, and so you need a supply Correct so you're not having to go out and ask for more. So if there's something left over, you put it away for those kids that are coming in, yeah, oh sorry, no, go ahead.
Speaker 4:Well, I was just going to finish that thought of you know we've got this, that it is immediately going into hands that families that are already experiencing homelessness, the other side of this, and I hope as a community we continue to talk more about this but it's this upstream approach. And let's just say, for easy math and I can tell you it's more than this, but just for easy math let's say it's $25 per backpack, the supplies that are in it in the backpack. If a family has four, that's $100. And I'm telling you that's a minimum number, $100 that they are spending on just four backpacks and supplies. If that's the case and we are able to bless them, or another drive can bless them, that's $100 that month that is still in the pockets of the grandparents, the parents, you might pay the rent.
Speaker 2:Correct, buy the food.
Speaker 4:And that we're seeing that go towards vehicle payments. We're seeing that be water payments for people. We're seeing that be part of electricity bill, which right now everyone's a skyrocketed because it's so hot, which we're going to talk about more in a minute. There's just a way that we are also blessing families that can reroute that hundred dollars to food utilities and other necessities in a time that it's really needed.
Speaker 3:And you know something I just learned today and I've been at the mission. How long is that? The Lions Club is also at our back-to-school drive to do vision screening. Yes, how amazing is that right? Because kids that can't see, well can't learn well.
Speaker 3:You know when they can't see the board when they can't see their papers, when they can't do that. So what a benefit and what a great partnership. And I was just thinking, lamanda, as you were talking. It really is all about partnership for us, whether it's with other organizations like let's Help or Doorstep or the number of people, salvation Army or groups like the Lions Club. It really is about coming together to meet all of the number of people Salvation Army or groups like the Lions Club. It really is about coming together to meet all of the needs that people have that they may not even realize.
Speaker 2:Yes, Well, that's really true. I'm going to tell a story about myself, since you brought up delicately how big I am. So big guys in grade school always get put in the back of the classroom, right, okay, well, in your back of the classroom, if you? Okay? Well, when you're back in the classroom, if you don't have good eyesight, you may not see what's on the chalkboard. You remember you're hearing about chalkboards, lamanda.
Speaker 4:Listen, I did a little bit on chalkboards.
Speaker 2:I did Were you in a museum.
Speaker 4:And for some reason on the bottom it said BF Barry Feaker.
Speaker 2:Carved in it. So in the sixth grade, right In the sixth grade carved in, of course. In the sixth grade my parents noticed I kept running into stuff. Okay, Like I'd be walking down somewhere and run into a tree, I'd run into a wall, and so they took me to an eye doctor and he says he needs glasses. That was on a Friday. Okay, I got my glasses a week later and went into school on a Monday. I'm sitting in the back of the room and I'm looking up on the chalkboard and I go that's what that stuff is doing up there.
Speaker 4:Because you didn't even know, didn't know.
Speaker 2:I absolutely did not know and my grades shot up. So one example of how vision like you mentioned is important to kids, plus the backpack.
Speaker 2:Yes so all those kinds of things. Okay, we're going to switch gears and talk about a subject that's on everybody's mind this year and every year this time, and that's the heat. We were predicted to get much hotter weather than we have seen, but we have some more coming. Fortunately, we had a couple of days where it was supposed to be really really cooking and it rained, and so it was really really nice. Yesterday was one of those days. And actually last night was kind of cool.
Speaker 4:It was beautiful 78, something like that. It's because all of us at TRM did the rain. Dance, lord, please, please.
Speaker 2:Well, it helped.
Speaker 4:So keep doing it.
Speaker 2:But more heat's coming, more heat has been here and this presents a huge problem. You mentioned utility bills for people that have housing and those kind of things, but people don't have housing, people that don't have a place to go. This is not only problematic for them, it's very dangerous. And so we have what's called the cooling centers that are going on and we also, in the wintertime, have the warming centers. And so, lamanda, talk a little bit about what you understand about the cooling centers that are going on through our community and what's the difference between a cooling center and maybe Speaker Rescue Mission's involvement more in the warming center. Component of that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm really glad that we get to talk about this because I have had so many one-off conversations where people have asked you know, conversations where people have asked you know TRM has taken on the bulk of kind of leading the way with a lot of other amazing partners that make it happen Warming centers, and why are we so involved in communication with warming centers and getting everybody on board but that we don't really do a lot with making a cooling?
Speaker 4:centers yes, so a couple of things with making a cooling centers. Yes, so a couple of things. One we have to remember that when we're making decisions for the warming centers, that it is not just based on just temperature or just wind chills or just precipitation. We are looking at the extreme weather that comes from a culmination of those three. If we have issues so extremely low temperatures, extremely low wind chills and then also a lot of precipitation, the real main concern that comes from us for our unsheltered neighbors is the overnights, when it is wintertime. And if someone has gotten wet because of the snow or the sleet, what happens at night? The temperatures drop.
Speaker 2:The wind chills get worse. So you don't just bring them during the daytime, you take care of them overnight.
Speaker 4:We have to.
Speaker 2:Because it doesn't get any warmer at night, correct?
Speaker 4:And so there's no relief really that comes for our unsheltered neighbors when it's the what I'm going to call the extreme winter weather, which is the combination of all of these three things. In the summertime there is not as much risk overnight for people with the heat because things cool down. So am I saying that it's not uncomfortable? Am I not saying that it's not unsafe? I'm not saying that. It's just completely different when we look at life or death overnight in the winter versus life or death overnight in the summertime, because there's not relief that comes in the wintertime. So that is one of the reasons why TRM has not chosen to try to bring all the troops together and to do cooling centers. The other pieces we do have and it's not like that in the wintertime, especially overnight, when the extremities are so worse During the day.
Speaker 4:There are places that our unsheltered neighbors can be in and out, as long as they are, of course, not misbehaving or, you know, criminal activity. So that provides a relief. We do have our community centers around town that open, that allow people to be in and out. We have the mobile access partnership that happens on Tuesday, thursday. That provides people relief in the wintertime, like I said, when we're concerned about particularly overnights, and we're concerned even in the daytime. A lot of times stuff shuts down and there is literally no options, which is why I think there's also some confusion. I had somebody tell me not too long ago well, wasn't the idea for warming centers TRM? So shouldn't TRM do all of this? And I just want to take a minute to remind you, you got to do it.
Speaker 4:So I just want to go there real quick and then we can get back on heat, cause I really I kind of want to set everybody um with a real straight understanding of what happened at that time. Uh, when, when we were facing this um, that was because we were facing a polar vortex the first time since 1989, I believe and the city of Topeka actually came to you, me and Bill Persinger, because of Vallejo's outreach, asking what are we going to do? Because historically there's nothing in place and the city was hearing From other municipalities that were saying, hey, this is not going to be good and we could have a high death toll with this. So you know, vallejo hadn't done one, we hadn't done one, but the Lord had laid on my heart nine months prior to that to research warming centers and I had presented that to you and Miriam a couple of times. Y'all gave feedback again, not you guys were experts on warming centers.
Speaker 4:But you looked at what I had and we had something ready to go should that happen, and so that was really an effort from city of Topeka, us, vallejo and everybody just saying we have no option or we're going to have people dying Well, it wasn't just like you got to create this thing, that you weren't already doing something, because Topeka rescue mission was already sheltering maybe 250 people at the time.
Speaker 2:There was no room in the inn, correct, so it wasn't like there was a lot of available other places. I remember that first winter Polar Vortex was in the warehouse area with mattresses on the floor, and then some other people joined in on that. So it wasn't like what people normally find in a shelter. It was very triage.
Speaker 4:Correct and I couldn't pause any of TRM's operations. If you think about it, we needed street reach for transportation, plus the relationships letting people know we really want you in driving the ATV to get them. We had the shelter still going, we had the distribution still needing to be doing, food distribution and all of that. So move forward. Two or three years now that have passed. It's one of those things you know better, you do better and we know better now and we're doing better Now. With that being said, the reason why it still seems so primarily TRM is because we're the ones consistently doing it At any time. We welcome, we plead, we beg right People to get involved in that, because this is not something we we don't operate in, being territorial, we don't. We did this because the city came to us concerned about this, constituents that are unsheltered neighbors and we saw value in that and we will continue to do that as much as we can.
Speaker 2:So you have a group of different individuals in the community that came together again last year to plan last year's, and you'll be ramping that up again here pretty soon, even though it's hot.
Speaker 4:Correct.
Speaker 2:Because it takes time to plan these. Because it's not just like, hey, you just come in and here's a blanket and go rest up. It takes a lot of different moving parts, it takes the food, it takes a place to go to the restroom. Remember that first year Outdoor porta potties that you could not keep thawed.
Speaker 3:We talked about trauma earlier.
Speaker 4:That is a trauma response. That was a whole new meaning to stirring the pot.
Speaker 2:No kidding, or at least chopping the pot, that's right, oh my gosh. And.
Speaker 4:Barry, you mentioned you know that talking about the warming centers like that, that's going to be starting up. We've already had two internal meetings on warming centers, which is kind of ironic. Yes, it's really ironic to be. You know, it's in the 90s outside and we're talking about well, how do we keep people from getting frostbite as they're walking to us or as they're?
Speaker 2:coming Major efforts of reaching people, which is a little more complicated today because we have camps that are not clearly identified anymore where people reside because of different ordinances.
Speaker 2:So reaching them, getting them out of harm's way safely and then keeping them safe while they're in the shelter and being ready for it to do whatever it's going to do, whenever it's going to do it, because there is no oh, we're going to decide. This is going to be January 15th, right? Yeah, don't do it that way. So you have to be ready to put a lot of things on pause as much as you can and be ready to then jump into high gear to save people's lives. Yes, bottom line.
Speaker 4:And that's what we have. So our initial survey will go out by the end of this week. That goes to the heavy lifters, is what I call them, the primary partners that are helping us just to assess are you going to be able to be involved in warming centers? Again it asks in what capacity? Are you willing to help staff with your staff or your volunteers? Are you willing to be a warming center site? Are you willing to help provide food for some of it, which offsets TRM's costs? So all of that's coming out this week, which is still July, but then we do that. From that Then comes these kind of partner meetings on that survey as well. It is who is not at the table. That should be so. New people will be hearing from me. New people heard from me last year. That should be so new people will be hearing from me.
Speaker 4:New people heard from me last year and so that comes. And then we have some community partner meetings that really the kickoff for these is tied to the debrief and the wrap up that we did this spring. And so we take feedback that we got I believe we had that meeting in April and and we take that information that we get and then we update our manuals, we update all of that and then that's how we say this year here's what these are going to look like.
Speaker 2:A lot of moving parts and it takes a lot of people to get those moving parts and communications that are ongoing, not just before but during the extreme weather events. In regards to technology, 24-7 people are communicating about how they are taking care of people at one side. Or do you have any resources for this side? Or in the volunteer capacity, a piece of this. It's a big deal, but at the end of the day, there are many people who might not make it if it wasn't for that, and they make it.
Speaker 3:Oh, we know that there are lives saved for a variety of reasons from the weather, or the weather being the motivation that helps people see that they want a different life.
Speaker 2:So we have a back to heat because it is it is hot out there. We're in July, and so I want to talk a little bit more about that. What does Topeka Rescue Missions role at this point in regards to outreach and what your teams are doing, your team is doing outside?
Speaker 4:So first I want to touch on something that I think can be overlooked when we start thinking about the heat, because we go straight to unsheltered neighbors, which we should. But the other piece is shelters. Are also shelter staff equipped? Because sometimes we have people in really rough shape show up at the doors and either trying to access shelter or still not ready to take that next step. But they also are scared of being out there by themselves. And so I love the teamwork of TRM and I am so proud of the departments and how they work together.
Speaker 4:So last week there was a big group thread between several of us leaders on hey, here's what we're going to be doing for outreach efforts with the unsheltered. But then shelters chimed in and said but how can we help? Because we need to be more equipped with some of those same resources when outreach teams are not out or it's nighttime or someone comes into the shelter. So literally within minutes our distribution services kicked in. They had an accurate count and inventory of different types of electrolyte based drinks, like Propel, and the packets and the types of popsicles. We had all of those kinds of things, and then knew exactly how many cases to bring over so that the shelters were able to hand those out in case somebody did access us and that we would have proper things to try to keep people hydrated while we're waiting on AMR which that's already happened, where we've had somebody with heat exhaustion or while they're just still trying to figure out what their next steps are. So we're passing out those items from shelter on top of what shelter.
Speaker 2:Front desk staff are navigating, somebody might be brought in, or just walk in. Who is dehydrated, who is in a medical crisis?
Speaker 2:when they come in. So I think, lamanda, what that speaks to is that the team whether they're in shelter or outside of shelter, working together has to know how to make some evaluations very quickly and know when to call for help. In regards to AMR fire department different folks that will come in to do some things and be able to then maybe be on site, whether it's in shelter or on the streets, to be able to help that person and stay with them until that proper help comes.
Speaker 4:And I'm going to try to get through this quickly and where I can talk, where people can hear me, because I feel this one pretty deep. But there has been a woman that we have known for about two and a half years now, myself included, and this woman has been, health wise, in really bad shape, probably of someone that is elderly. However, this person's age is in the 50s, so this person has fallen in between every crack our system could create. Not old enough for this, quote, unquote, not bad enough for this. This person had mental illness challenges, but yet when people would talk to the individual, who is female, she's scared and so she didn't want to just be discarded like she felt, like she had, and so then we were told multiple times by multiple agencies there's nothing we can do, either because of her age, because she was still able, bodied somewhat and all of these things. And so Rachel Fliniken, hope Center director, has been involved with this individual I mean probably for the full two and a half years, and we have taken this individual into the shelter when really we probably shouldn't have. This individual could not take care of herself at all Because TRM is not a nursing care facility and we're talking, um, no control over bowel movements, no control over urination, um, and the level of um compassion our guests had to have, that are sharing spaces and anyways, there's been a lot to navigate and there's been a lot of people that have helped this individual and I'm so thankful and if we had time I would go on. But Rachel has really been the person that just hasn't left and even when this individual was not a guest, rachel just did not leave this person. Not a guest, rachel just did not leave this person. So I teamed up with some people at the hospital, a couple of other agencies Another agency gave us relief and housed her for a few, I think maybe two weeks and we finally got her in a facility where she is taken care of and just huge movements, huge movements.
Speaker 4:I say that because one of the things that I know has continued to motivate myself and Rachel and some other people on the team is she will not make it through this summer and we knew that. Now, none of us I know the spiritual side, we don't know God's timing. We could all go at any time, I know that. But practically, looking at this individual and her health and seeing the deterioration, particularly over the last 12 months. I know that was something that was determined it was. We cannot lose her Like she's still a person.
Speaker 4:Rachel spent on different occasions, one of them eight hours with her at the hospital because she knew the individual would be scared by herself and wouldn't comply or would leave. Or she was worried too that maybe not everybody would view her the way that we see she should be viewed, and so for about three days it was intense. Right, rachel's texting me from the hospital, she's giving me updates, she's nervous. Oh, it doesn't look like this is going to work out, oh no. And then I would pray a couple of times. I was at events and I would just be like God, please don't let this fall through.
Speaker 4:And anyways, because of some incredible partnerships, because of um donors supplying the amount of clothes that individual went through until we could medically get her handled was just outrageous, honestly. But because of donors supplying the clothes, we could continue to meet those needs. But it finally all got through and I am so thankful for people like Rachel who is juggling, being on call for the shelter, handling all of those issues and all that, but yet being determined. We have got to get a solution and we have got to get a solution by summertime or we are literally going to see someone die and it's stuff like that that I'm not sure I articulate good enough because we're just always fast paced and we have so much going on. But Rachel's doing those things in the months of April and May and June, not including what we all did in November of last year and December of last year in the warming center.
Speaker 4:Every single day every single day so.
Speaker 2:I'm just thankful. So where are we at with this lady now?
Speaker 4:She um is. I haven't gotten an update in about a week and a half but um was admitted into a facility, is getting medical assistance. Um is now in compliance with some other um aid and stuff that she's going to get and I'm waiting on when I can visit I don't think a lot of people realize how complicated the system is, um can be.
Speaker 2:I mean, it meets a lot of needs for a lot of people and we say the system that's very generic. But there are people that just don't fit in the system well and um Topeka rescue mission and our streets are, um are populated with a lot of people that don't fit the system well, and it's not their fault, it is. We haven't figured out the ways that we can create different systems or incorporate those folks into the systems that fit for them, because we have funding regulations, we have policies, we have communication challenges, we have protections for civil liberties and those kind of things in regards to mental health. So it's very, very complicated. And if it wasn't for places like Topeka Rescue Mission, if it wasn't for outreach, if it wasn't for mobile access partnership, if it wasn't for those things, we would have suffering that we can't even calculate right now.
Speaker 3:And you know what I just keep thinking about. So this person that LaManda was talking about had advocates to try to navigate a system. Can you imagine those folks that haven't connected yet with an advocate right when they're trying to navigate all of this the best they can, it can't happen, and then it's why the people end up. So you know, the thing that we never know is how many of the folks that we serve or that are still out on the streets have tried to get through some of those systems.
Speaker 3:And then because they can't well now, they end up on the street, they end up at the Topeka Rescue Mission, they end up in all these different places because systems are so complicated and not logical in so many ways that they end up in a negative situation because of the systems that we are challenged to navigate with them.
Speaker 2:I think that you know and this is brings up something, miriam, I think, for we need to devote a whole podcast to advocates yes.
Speaker 2:And the value of people who are advocating for other people and who are caring for them. Just like LaMandie mentioned, rachel spending all that time with her at the hospital been in those situations before it kills your whole schedule, but you can't leave that person because, if you do, they're going to end up right back where they were, or worse. And so we need more people helping people. Yes, helping with the clothes, helping with the funding, helping with the food, helping with giving your life to work at a place like Topeka Rescue Mission, but we also need more people helping people. And there's the secret sauce. It really is. That is. The secret sauce for success is people working with people and getting to a place where they understand systems.
Speaker 3:And just think about what that personal thing that Rachel did, which was stay with this person in the hospital, how much comfort and healing that provided for that person. Right, because she didn't have to be scared, because she didn't have to not know anyone, she could relate, there was relationship. If we've said it once, we've said it a thousand times, we can never undervalue relationship or overvalue it. Rather, we can never overvalue relationship. It is, and it's what you're saying, barry, it's the secret sauce.
Speaker 2:It really is.
Speaker 3:Relationship is what makes the difference in so many ways.
Speaker 2:I think it's rocket science when we consider from a spiritual standpoint, when the Old Testament and Jesus repeated it, the key here is to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. And when we do that, not just talk about it, not just throw a resource at it and say one and done, but actually loving our neighbor and asking God what is it you want me to do for my neighbor and who is my neighbor?
Speaker 3:I think somebody asked Jesus that one time and to go after the one.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:Because in this situation, Rachel was serving a lot, but she went after the one.
Speaker 4:And there were pages of documentation, pages I'm not sure because I don't have it in front of me, but I did have a count at AMR calls on this individual over a 12 month period, and so I can only imagine what it was like to be an AMR worker.
Speaker 4:And I know that's got to be difficult and I know sometimes you're like, oh, is this person crying wolf, you know? And what are we doing? And now what do we do with her? Because the hospitals are going to be, you know, understaffed and overworked and all of that, and so it just impacts all of us. But now we've got one that had I'm not joking sometimes as much as four to five AMR calls a week. And now not only have we eliminated that stressor on everyone's taxpaying dollars, right and resources, but the other side is we haven't just kicked a person down the road Like we have stuck with her so that she's getting the care she needs. I'm not saying I want everything depleted from the community and I don't want our community to thrive the community and I don't want our community to thrive, but a lot of times, if we work together, we will find a solution that is dignified for the person and also equitable for our community.
Speaker 2:So, through the investment of some people not giving up on this woman, there's also been an immediate cost adjustment in regards to how many emergency calls that were out there which she's not able to pay for. But still they have to do everything they're going to do. It takes keeping those units going and the staff and all the protocols and going to the hospitals and so forth. Somebody gets to pay for that, and it's us. In one way or another we get to pay for that, and so we reduce cost when we do it right, and so that's what we're trying to communicate now is what is it costing us to do it the way we're doing it versus what we could do, maybe better?
Speaker 4:and the connection I want to make to that is um, I want to go back to how you were talking about the relationship piece. Um, some people will hear this and think, oh, that's a success story. What I get frustrated with is if you would have seen us seven months ago. People that give accolades to this part of the story sometimes are the people that are saying some very mean things.
Speaker 4:If you would have seen this six months in people look at her as dirty. People look at her as she's defecating on sidewalks. People look at the trash that she was trying to carry but was unstable and would fall with it. This can't be a quick fix. We're talking this one individual, two and a half years of working diligently with her, and so, you know, this week and next week we're going to be going out with bags of fruit and hydration drinks, which we can talk about in a minute.
Speaker 4:Some people look at that as are we enabling people.
Speaker 4:Some people are looking at that as that's, you know, a waste of resources.
Speaker 4:I'm telling you that that bag of fruit could sometimes lead to that person trusting us as we're sitting with them in the hospital for eight hours.
Speaker 4:And so some of these efforts that we've pivoted to for this extreme heat is to, in the moment, look people in their eyes, tell them that they're loved, tell them we thought about them, tell them people prayed about them as they were cutting up cantaloupe and watermelon and getting the packets ready and making the cooling cloths.
Speaker 4:And sometimes we leave those resources and we don't know what it's going to lead to, right, we don't know how it's going to help besides that moment. But what I can tell you is time and time again, that fruit bag, that cooling cloth, that hydration drink leads into someone, even if it's for that moment, or days after, or weeks after, or years after then trusting us or other agencies whatever the that we do that are tied to food and drink, because food and drink do not just nourish people physically, it's a way that it also nourishes their hearts and sometimes their mind to realize, man, these are people that really do care, or I can trust them. And then they start telling us more. That's how we're able to start solving more problems together, and then we see transformation.
Speaker 2:So it takes a lot of different moving parts to this, and the more a person is damaged emotionally, psychologically, mentally, whatever physically the more it's going to take to reach that person, to help them to get where they need to be, if we even can do that. But it's so easy when all we see is the ramifications or the outcomes of neglect and medical issues, mental health issues, and we look at that person and we don't understand it, we're afraid of it, so we judge it and we then blame it. And so we blame it, because if I can't blame that, I may have to blame somebody else.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And I don't want to blame me Right, and so it's not everybody's fault for what's happened in society. It's just all of our responsibility to try to come together to see what we can do about it of other agencies and incredible supporters and individuals who help kids with a backpack or help our neighbors to be able to get into a warming center in the winter, or bringing them basic supplies that they need right where they are. So before we close today, let me talk about some of the practical things that's happening in regards to you mentioned things that are hydration and those kinds of things. What do we need at Topeka Rescue Mission to be able to put in the hands of people in shelter when somebody walks in or maybe in the streets?
Speaker 4:Well, we need people and resources.
Speaker 2:What kind of people, what kind of resources?
Speaker 4:Yes, the people that we need is to help us cut up fruit primarily. You know you wouldn't think it's a lot until you get three, four, five watermelons in there and you're trying to cut them up into cubes.
Speaker 4:So if you're a fruit cutter, if you're a fruit cutter, upper or if you just want to take it upon yourself to cut up your own fruit right and bring to us that, that's helpful too. But it really is the people aspect. Um, you know this uh heat wave? Um, the fruit and stuff were taken care of um by a lot of staff members at the children's palace who paused what they were doing to be able to um, cut these up. I know it sounds silly, but again, there's a system for this.
Speaker 4:We cannot do watermelon just off the rind, because, one, what are you going to put it in so that we are keeping it cool while the outreach teams are out? Secondly, we have to take in consideration a lot of our unsheltered neighbors do not have proper dental care, and so sometimes they might not have teeths or they don't have good teeth care. So we're really particular on what fruit we're giving and how we are dicing it, so that we're cognizant of that Same thing with the cantaloupes as well, and so we need people to help with getting those ready. We need help with, once we have the fruit cut up, putting it into the baggies, those kinds of things. As far as what resources do we need? Food wise, we need the fruit watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, anything like that. That is really heavy. Water-based Honeydew is another one, and we're able to put those all together in mixtures.
Speaker 2:You some vitamins in there and some sugars that people need in those. This very practical things.
Speaker 4:Yes, and then the last two big items that we need are, um kind of more your hydration drinks. So, um, we get a. We need a lot of propel and Gatorade and, um, anything that has the electrolytes. Um, and that's for two reasons One, trying to pump people up ahead of time with them, but then also, we're going to be doing this several times this week and next week and, barry, we don't know what we're going to find. We could find somebody already that is dehydrated and they need a lot of those electrolytes.
Speaker 2:You know, I think that there are listeners right now who are saying I really don't have the time or the expertise, or I'm not really sure I'm the right person to go out in the streets to actually do this. But I go to the grocery store, Correct, and I've just heard this that maybe I could pick up the watermelon or the cantaloupe or some of the Propel or just cases of water, whatever, and I can get them to the Topeka Rescue Mission.
Speaker 4:Or.
Speaker 2:I can send money and designate it to the Topeka Rescue Mission for that.
Speaker 2:There's just so many ways that people can help and not everybody's going to be on the front lines like Rachel was and that you have been and others have been with this particular lady and others like her, but they can certainly be a part of the team to be able to do this.
Speaker 2:And just know that everybody has got a unique assignment on this earth, a unique assignment. Not everybody can do the same thing, and that's a good thing, because we don't need one thing done by a whole lot of people. We've got a lot of things done by a lot of people to do them, and so just encourage everybody that is maybe thinking about the heat, is thinking about the challenges that people are facing, thinking about some of the really awesome turnarounds that have happened in people's life. You can be a part of that by being a part of the Topeka Rescue Mission or your church or your neighborhood or whatever. There's a lot of people doing stuff out in the neighborhoods that are helping their neighbors. That's awesome too, and it's not like just one organization can do this, but there is one big one and it's called the Topeka rescue mission helping a lot of folks we also need um.
Speaker 4:I think that a lot of people don't think of this, and I've seen some already go on sale, which is crazy. The other day I was in a store and there's Halloween stuff out. I'm like what Um? But our popsicles, um. So popsicles, from a logistical standpoint of our outreach teams, they're able to freeze them, break them apart, put them in coolers and they're very easy for distributing them out and they people are able to enjoy them right then. But then, even if it melts fast, the taste is still there. Now there's a lot of cheaper versions, like the flavored ice and things. We accept those. The other thing that we don't often get but would appreciate if people can do are the Pedialyte popsicles.
Speaker 4:So, Pedialyte again is for the sickness of dehydration with kids.
Speaker 2:Not just for kids, but also for adults.
Speaker 4:But we tried two years ago not last summer, but the summer before Pedialyte popsicles because I had this idea. And then I tell the Street Reach team like, do you think the grown men are just going to think we're crazy when we jump out and we're like you want a popsicle? And they're like well, boss, lady, we won't know until we try. So we did, we had coolers full of them and um drove all around town trying to pass out popsicles and everyone accepted them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll tell you when you're hot.
Speaker 4:Yep, you do, and we had so. Then it was last year. I was like, can we try maybe Pedialyte, because they have a little bit more than just the sugar, and so we did that. But they are more expensive, so we don't get them as often. But Popsicles is another thing that we could be blessed with.
Speaker 2:Topeka Rescue Mission's got some big old freezers that they can put their stuff in.
Speaker 2:If you bring down a queso or whatever you're going to be, it's going to have a place, it's to dock somewhere and melt. It's going to get taken care of because you, as supporters of the Topeka Rescue Mission, have made it possible by your donations, by your volunteering and by your support. Lamanda, there's still a lot of summer left. We don't know really what the weather's going to do. We do know there's a lot of efforts that are occurring every single day to try to help our neighbors who are in great need and hopefully someday there's a turnaround in some of their lives, which we know we see every day at Topeka Rescue Mission. And then also, you're going to be talking about warming centers pretty soon too, so you already are so people will be hearing more about that as we go forward.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for listening to our community, our mission. You've heard a lot of different subjects about back to school. You've heard about some needs for backpacks about back to school. You've heard about some needs for backpacks. The day that we start the community distribution here at Topeca Rescue Mission is August 6th, so that's right around the corner. So, if you can bring those, you can also find some other needs of Topeca Rescue Mission on the website at trmonlineorg, and maybe you might want to volunteer, maybe even apply for a job, maybe just be aware so you can pray. Thank you for listening to our community, our mission.