Blue Hat Mark

Today, I realized how important I am in one man's life. A former guest, now part-time employee (blue hat) at Loaves and Fishes, has been presented with the opportunity to chase his dreams. On December 8, Friendship Park received a new coffee pot through the Sacramento Bee's Book of Dreams (http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/21/4071833/book-of-dreams-2011.html). The reporter that came to take pictures was so touched by Loaves and Fishes that she decided to come back, see how guests liked the new coffee pot, and write the story herself. When she came back, Blue Hat Mark had written a poem. He shared it with her as a "thank you" for the coffee pot (Mark volunteers in the coffee shack in the mornings). She then decided to change her story and put more focus on him and his poem.

Since then, the Sacramento Bee has done a story just on Blue Hat Mark (http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/03/4158583/homeless-sacramento-poet-climbs.html). This story then brought attention to Mark and many wanted to help him by providing paper/pens, or inviting him to provide poetry for a poetry benefit. Many great gifts were given from many different people. One couple donated their old laptop for him to be able to type up his poetry and hopefully make a book. Others have told him that they're willing to publish a book for him when he's ready.

With all of these gifts, Mark has become very busy with his poetry. He never had classes on computers growing up, so he's still learning how to use Microsoft Word in order to prepare his poetry. He calls me his IT person. I've never considered myself to be that excellent at computers, but I've learned that compared to some, I do know a lot. I've been able to help Mark with a lot over the past month or two, but I realized how important to him I was today.

This morning, Mark told me he needed help on the computer when I got time. I told him to remind me when I wasn't behind the service counter. Then it became lunch time. While I was at lunch in the Mustard Seed School courtyard, Green Hat Tim came by and told me that Mark needed my help when I got back from lunch. I had completely forgotten! Upon returning from lunch, I made it my top priority to make sure I helped Mark after he got off work (he stamps the lunch tickets). Around 12:55pm, I headed over to the pastry shack (where he stamps tickets) to make sure I wouldn't get caught up and could help him.

I found out that a toolbar on Word had disappeared and that some of his poems were being erased when he was copying them into the book. Both of which were easy things that I could fix. I showed him how to view toolbars, then I had him get his jump drive out. I copied the poems from his jump drive to the computer/in the files they should have been in. Then I showed him how to copy and paste. That's when I found out he was cutting and pasting (why the poems were disappearing). After I'd helped him with everything, he grabbed some napkins, wiped his face, then blew his nose. I thought he was on the verge of tears. He was so happy that I'd been able to fix everything and things were how they were suppose to look.

Mark is a sweet man. I am excited for things to be looking up in his life. Before he started working part-time, stamping tickets, at Loaves and Fishes, he hadn't had a job in 8 years. I'm very happy that I can be here to watch him get back on his feet. Hopefully, this writing dream will keep him safe and get him back inside. Mark has been very blessed in the recent months, and I hope that blessings like his appear in many other of the guests' lives as well.

-Krystal