Some people are talking the talk with the homeless. Others are walking the walk.
\nFather Joe’s Villages’ A Short Walk Home, the first 2.1-mile charity walk to end homelessness, will take place Saturday, Aug. 5 from 8 to 11 a.m. starting at the Embarcadero Marina Park, 200 Marina Park Way. Marchers will walk through a giant door at the finish line.
\nMarch participants are forming\u00a0teams and working together with family, friends and neighbors to support Father Joe\u2019s Villages\u2019 mission on this charity walk. All contributions will help Father Joe\u2019s Villages move individuals and families off the streets and into their own permanent homes.
\nTwo Peninsulans are marching for the homeless on Aug. 5.
\nPoint Loman\u00a0Ann Wieczorek is leading a team of walkers, including her daughter and several women from her church. Calling themselves “Heart of Gold,” the team has already fundraised more than $300, earning a spot in the top five fundraisers so far.\u00a0
\nObecian\u00a0Ann Link regularly volunteers at Father Joe’s Villages. She is now leading a team of walkers calling themselves “Leading Ladies.” Her team has already raised more than $600 \u2013 the second highest fundraising effort thus far.
\nTogether, these two women are rallying Point Loma and Ocean Beach to tackle San Diego’s homelessness crisis.\u00a0
\nLink first got involved with Father Joe’s Villages when she retired five years ago.\u00a0
\n“I wanted to do something to help our community and it seems like we have a disproportionately large homeless population in San Diego. I wanted to know why and what was being done about it,” she said. “I chose Father Joe’s Villages because they are a well-established non-profit and seem to be tackling the homeless problem in a comprehensive, thoughtful way.\u00a0 The more I got involved, the more impressed I was.”
\nLink noted Father Joe’s offers a plethora of volunteer opportunities, everything from helping people find permanent housing to food service and administrative work.
\n“The work itself is not glamorous \u2014 I hand out towels and toilet articles, and distribute mail,” Link said. “But I try to be a pleasant, reliable contact, try to learn people’s names, be a good listener and support the full-time staff in any way that I can. I am humbled by their dedication to the homeless.”
\nWieczorek is general counsel at Father Joe\u2019s Villages. She got involved because “I felt a need to do something more for my sisters and brothers. When the opportunity arose to work with Father Joe\u2019s Villages, which is not only a great cause but also a San Diego institution, I jumped on it quickly. I saw this as an opportunity to combine really living my faith with my profession. My motivation is simple: to help serve others.”
\nWieczorek said the purpose of a Short Walk Home is to “Spread the work of FJV\u2019s mission: ending homelessness one life at a time. It\u2019s intended to benefit all of FJV\u2019s efforts throughout San Diego.\u00a0 In my own \u2018neck of the woods,’ Ocean Beach and Point Loma communities have seen a significant increase in homelessness, to the point where homelessness awareness and issues surrounding homelessness constitute some of the central issues facing the community, and certainly some of the most discussed issues.”
\nWieczorek added, “Rents have increased, pushing more and more individuals out on the street. We love San Diego and our community, but we can\u2019t be blind to the significant problems facing the margins of our society \u2013 and I should mention those margins are getting bigger.\u00a0 On our part, I\u2019ve created a team called \u2018Heart of Gold\u2019 made up of the men and women of Sacred Heart Church in OB. We will walk together on Aug. 5 in support of FJV\u2019s mission.”
\nFor more information, visit\u00a0http:\/\/my.neighbor.org\/charity-walking-event-short-walk-home\/.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some people are talking the talk with the homeless. Others are walking the walk. Father Joe’s Villages’ A Short Walk Home, the first 2.1-mile charity walk to end homelessness, will take place Saturday, Aug. 5 from 8 to 11 a.m. starting at the Embarcadero Marina Park, 200 Marina Park Way. Marchers will walk through a […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":272886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Peninsulans walk to end homelessness","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}