Street roots
9
Dec. 7, 2012
VENDORS, fro m page 8
well-off among us, where we will be
tomorrow, much less a year from now, but
the repercussions of a right thing done in a
right way will last forever. So thanks to my
many many wonderful customers always.
God bless and happy holidays!
— Ron Sanford
and she said, Well, who would sell me my
papers? I look forward to seeing you. Life’s
not that bad.” And she walked into Fred
Meyer and bought me a $30 gift card. That
really brightened up my day. She restored
my faith in humanity.
— Cassidy Morse
love my
customers and
they love me day
by day. I sell the
paper at the SW 4th
and Oak Starbucks
and the Southwest
Sixth and Stark
Street food carts.
I’ve made a very big
friendship with them
Tibor Szjako
even with the police.
Even they come to
buy the paper, they stop me and say hello
and ask how I’ve been.
— Tibor Szjako
have a customer who is a financial adviser
and he always stops to talk with me for
long periods of time, a really good, decent,
Christian guy. He’s told me several times
that I’m a good man. Back in July I was
having a really bad month and I was way
behind on making my rent. He showed up
and asked how things were going. I wasn’t
trying to hit him up for money or play up his
sympathies, I just told him the truth, that
for the first time it looked like I wouldn’t
make my rent by the first and I was worried
about getting a late fee and all that stuff.
Two days before the end of the month he
donated enough money to pay my rent for
me.
— Frank Hodges
I
I
f you sell Street Roots for a period of time
you remember the face, but can’t always
sold a paper to Suzanne Bonamici before
remember the name. A familiar face stopped
she was elected to the House. She was
by to get a paper in a cold November rain. It
very nice and she is much shorter in person
was dark out and he dropped the bill in the
than she is in her TV ads. I am in Earl
old candy jar asking how accessible the
Blumenauer’s district, but I work in hers, so
director of Street Roots was. I said he was
it was nice to see her.
very easy to talk to and always took time for
— John R. Brown everyone. He said he wanted to know
somewhere to take the kids in his Sunday
school class to handout hygiene kits to the
was selling on Broadway and I like to sing
homeless. I suggested Potluck in the Park
out there. I was in a Shakespeare play
and the director would have the contact
once, so I was reciting Hamlet loudly in a
information for the man who organizes that
British accent. And when I was done I said,
Sunday event. When he left I pulled the bill
“Yes, that was Shakespeare.” About 10
out of the jar before it got too wet and saw it
minutes later, a lady came back and said,
was a 20 dollar bill.
“Yeah, that was Shakespeare. I thought you
— Dan Newth
were just a crazy guy out there talking.” And
she smiled and bought a paper. It was a nice
ne customer,
moment.
who’s become
— John Michael Christian
one of my favorites,
he’s been my
customer for a
couple of years, we
T ast
as winter I
-L/ne eeded a coat,
talk every time he
comes to buy a
when to my surprise
paper. And I told him
a gentleman at the
my teeth have been
Walgreen’s I was
hurting and my
working at gave me a
Raymond
insurance
doesn’t
large Adidas, heavy
Thornton
cover
it,
and
I’ve
got
sport-type coat.
no choice but to get
Everybody then, it
dentures soon. It’s very hard to save the
seemed wanted to
amount of money needed. We’ve talked
know if I was from
about it a couple of times at length, and he
Cincinnati, OH. No,
Ron Sanford
knows that my daughter’s been sending me
I’m not, I’d say
a little bit of money so I’ve been squirrelling
politely. But thanks for
it away slowly. My customer asked me how
asking!
much it would cost for my dentures, and I
Although my coat is very tattered now
told him I wasn’t really sure. I think it’s
from another 90 percent or so of a homeless
going to be up somewhere around $1,000.
year since then, I’m now finally in
He came back the next day with an envelope
temporary housing, where I’m able to have
and said he wanted to contribute to the
clothing, showers, meals and more!
cause, that it’s a good cause, that he
There are no guarantees, even for the
I
I
I
O
couldn’t see me in pain out here every day.
He gave me an envelope with $250 in it, and
he told me to use it when I was ready. I
tried to deny the money right away, said I
wasn’t sure if I was ready to do it. That I
didn’t want to have it in my possession in
case I needed to spend it on something else.
He said that if I had to spend it it was
probably needed to be spent, and I should
use it as my own discretion. He said he
believed in me, believed it was a good cause
and he wanted to contribute. That action is
such a sincere compliment. I’m just the guy
on the corner he met two years ago and we
became friends through slowly talking. I
made a friend. I made an advocate.
— Raymond Thornton
lost my wallet recently and David Smith,
the man who manages the place I’ve been
staying while I’m homeless, came up to me
after walking all the way down the road to
the Starbucks to find me and he told me he
was sorry I lost my wallet and handed me 20
bucks and said “I hope this gets you to
replace what you lost.”
— Darryl Goeas
I
wish everyone a warm, good Christmas. I
hope that everyone stays warm during the
holidays and through the winter, and I really
appreciate the customers that help out and
buy a paper even though they already have
one. The regular customers out there who
really appreciate the paper, I really
appreciate them.
— Jason Mitchell
I
hank you to all the employees at
Interstate New Seasons, especially
Molly for being so incredibly helpful over
the past year.
— Steve Hill and his dog Kayla
T
got $20 the other day and got so excited. I
didn’t even know who the guy was, that’s
what blew my mind. I just got overly excited
about it. I wish I knew who it was, though. I
keep wanting to ask people.
— Wayne Moore
I
do extra work for a guy who does ATM
machines around town. Last year, he
asked me if I wanted to start working for
him part time. When I first started working
for him, we were out checking machines and
he counted out $2,000 and he handed me
the money and said he wanted me to double
check it. He took off, so I counted it in his
rig and there was an extra $100 there, so it
was actually $2100, so he was testing me to
see if I was going to pocket the money,
which I didn’t, of course. And ever since
then we’ve been close. I do his house work,
whatever he asks me to do. It’s cool. He
helps me out a lot. It came from Street
Roots.
- Jeff McCall
lady walked by during my sales pitch and
said, “You’re not a Navy veteran.” I
I
A
simply replied,
“Ma’am, here is my
ID,” to offer proof.
She then apologized
and said, “God bless
your heart, here take
the day off,”
explaining to me that
her whole family was
in the service as she
Don Grubb
handed me a 50
dollar bill.
Another time a customer told me he
loved Street Roots but was 60 cents short
on buying the paper. So I responded, saying,
“Well sir, I’m a businessman and I’m not
going to refuse you a paper because you
only have 40 cents.” I gave him a paper and
told him that customers and outstanding
customer service is the foundation on which
every business should stand. As I proceeded
to close the sale and said, “May peace and
blessings surround your day.” A few days
later he came by and gave me a 20 dollar
bill. “Keep up the good work,” he said.
— Don Grubb
arly last year, a regular customer of
mine who never purchases the paper
but always gives me a dollar when I see him,
complained about the Notre Dame hat that I
was wearing. He gave me a Stanford hat
right after Andrew Luck was drafted No. 1
in the draft and commented on the fact that
Oregon had knocked them out of the
national championship game last year. Then
this year Stanford went to Oregon and
knocked them out of the national
championship game and he said I should
now be wearing the hat that said, To Gus,
#42, John Elway. I think it’s ironic that they
both knocked each other out, and now Notre
Dame, the hat that he wanted me to get rid
of, is now number one in place of Stanford,
whose hat he wants me to wear now.
— Rick Buck
E
pe of my
O!
'customers,
Michael, is a
prosecutor. He read
my article when I
first started and
became my regular
customer in May.
I’ve known him for
about six months.
He’s a really good
guy, and he buys my
Earl Bennett
paper faithfully. He
says he likes a lot of
things: the politics of it, the economy of it.
He was telling me it’s very informative and
you need a newspaper like this for people
who do need money in their pocket. He’s a
really good man. We’ll converse, he’ll walk
his two poodles, he’s a really good guy and
he’s one of my favorites.
— Earl Bennett
Compiled by Cole Merkel
TlieTaft H om e
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