Street roots., November 23, 2012, Page 6, Image 6

street roots
Nov. 23. 2012
The Dread Before
Winter
Volunteering
keeps vendor
connected
by Amina M. M. Slider
The dark is here
Its dread so near
A time of weeping
And gnashing
And tears.
BY COLE MERKEL
S T A F F W R IT E R
very Thursday, Street Roots vendor
William Adams helps make bologna
and cheese sandwiches for Operation
Nightwatch, a hospitality center he has
been a community member of for more than
three years. He began making the
sandwiches five months ago. “I walked into
it,” William says. One afternoon there was a
need for someone to help make sandwiches;
William was in the church and he stepped
up to the plate, so to speak, to help.
William has since become a regular
volunteer with Clay Street Table, the meals
program housed in St. Stephen’s Episcopal
Church — the same church that houses
An envelope of stone-cold fear
Sealed quite shut
With angry tears.
E
Walk alone
Broken home
Desiring haloed streets to roam
What Happened?
By Brendan Lee
To my good friend
Of the British isles.
First it was Family!
Then cancer!
Then work!
Then your HIV+ friend,
Took you hook line & sinker via pity,
Or was it money?
God bless you!!!!
Bill Adams
Operation Nightwatch. On top of making
sandwiches every Thursday, William helps
clean up after Saturday morning breakfast,
and one Thursday every month he helps
coordinate the delivery and distribution of
food from Oregon Food Bank.
“I come in here really early those
mornings, take all the food from the storage
room and into the little chapel, then
redistribute it on the tables in the
fellowship halls,” Bill says.
On those Thursdays, William is typically
at the church from 9:3Q- t n The morning;
working all day, and stays until Operation
Nightwatch closes around 11 p.m.
“The pantry is chaos,” says Bill, whose
usually serious face turns into a smile. It is
apparent that he relishes that chaos, and,
perhaps more importantly, loves that fact
that he has become such an integral part of
a program he has called his community for
several years.
“I like to keep myself busy,” he says
quietly, continuing to liberally apply
mayonnaise on slices of bread.
“Volunteering also keeps me active in the
church, and it keeps me inside for part of
*
P H O T O BY COLE M ER K EL
Street Roots vendor B ill Adam s makes sandwiches at Operation Nightwatch where he
volunteers.
the day, away from the riffraff on the
streets.” Bill has been a parishioner of St.
Stephen’s for more than a year. “I feel at
home here,” he says.
Most days, except Wednesday, William
can be found selling Street Roots at Safeway
on Southwest 10th Avenue and Jefferson
Street.
“The people out where I’m selling are
really nice. It’s also really close to the
church.” Hence, a lot of his regular
customers are St. Stephen’s parishioners.
He’s also become a regular customer at the
Energy Bar coffee shop at Southwest Park
Avenue and Clay Street. When he needs to
take a break from selling, part of William’s
routine is to drop off a Street Roots for the
owner and drink a cup of coffee at the shop.
“I like being out and about. It keeps me in
contact with the community around me.”
“I want my customers to know I work
hard and a lot,” says William.
His next major project at St. Stephen’s is
to lead a cooking class on how to roast a
duck — his grandmother’s old recipe. It will
be the first time he’s led a cooking class;
he’s not really worried about the teaching
part. He doesn’t know how people are going
to react to the taste, since duck isn’t a
popular meat. He just hopes people like it.
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