This week was the annual Seattle Academy Teen Challenge event at the Shelter. A fine group of eighth grade boys and girls with adult supervision came in to serve us a well balanced dinner of pasta with meatballs, a tossed salad, pears, and chocolate chip cookies for dessert. All went well. No one put Joy dish washing soap in the big dishwasher this year, so the young boys didn’t have to spend the evening mopping soap suds off the floor. Mixing eighth grader private school kids and homeless men is always interesting. Those two worlds don’t come in contact much. There is a lot of staring and not staring going on with the youths. But the men rise to the occasion, and understand what is going on, and try to be friendly in appropriate ways with the kids. So much so that on the way out of the Shelter as we were headed back upstairs after serving was done young Sophie asked me, “Are they all friends?” I took that as a fine compliment because that is one of the main goals we have at the Shelter. To create a friendly place where men can come in and live in relative safety among friends. Thanks to the men, and thanks for noticing, Sophie.

In other news, we are out of ice cream, and juice, and milk. We are a little spoiled with the ice cream, I know, but any ice cream will do.

That’s the News from The Men’s shelter, on Phinney Ridge.

Ben Paul 3-2-2016 (Eileen’s birthday)