by John Wayne Claybaugh
So many times during my years in the homeless community and since, I have heard the negative comments about many of the providers in Denver. In reality, it's not all bad. We are all human, though, so there will be some bad experiences.
I've had several good experiences though. The one I'll share now happened at the Denver Rescue Mission's Lawrence Shelter in 2011
The Lawrence shelter is commonly referred to as an emergency shelter. As such, the men who sleep there are required to strip their beds and turn their sheets in each morning. This is because the beds are occupied by different people each night.
One morning, after texting my wife and doing a few other things with my cell phone, I got up and started preparing for the day. At some point I stripped the bed and put the sheets in a rolling laundry bin. It would later be rolled to the freight elevator and taken to the laundry room in the basement. I proceeded to gather my belongings, preparing to vacate the dorm.
At some point I realized my cell phone was not in my pants pocket that I usually kept it in. I checked all the pockets of my coat and pants. I rummaged through every compartment of my backpack. The cell phone was not in my possession any longer.
I began to think about when I last remembered having it, and what I had done since that moment. I realized I hadn't touched my cell phone since I was texting in bed. And the bed was stripped!
I found one of the program guys (who work there while completing a transitional rehab program) and told him what my phone looked like. I told him that whoever was doing laundry would find it wrapped up in the sheets. He said he would notify the laundry personnel. I wasn't sure if I would ever see my phone again. Even if they found it, would they be honest and return it? And would it be found before or after it went through the wash? I didn't expect to hear anything about my phone until later that day when I returned for the night.
I left the dorm a few minutes later. I routinely had breakfast at the shelter back then, so I went to the main chapel area on the main floor to wait. It would be a half hour before breakfast would be served. The chapel areas are used as a waiting area during the day for meals.
I had barely even sat down when the same person I'd talked to upstairs called out to me. I walked over to him and he handed me my phone.
"Holy crap," I said. "It's been found already!"
"Yep," he said.
Well, thanks," I said. This is awesome."
I found out that evening from one of the staff members that the person I had talked to and two other program guys had decided to look through every laundry bin until they found my phone. They stopped what they were doing and did this as soon as they heard about my misplaced phone. I was told that they didn't want to be recognized or rewarded in any way. "They did what they felt in their hearts was the right thing," is what I was told.
To me, that was pretty awesome.
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