It may have been a hot weekend, with the summer sun beaming down relentlessly, but Lifeline’s huge Garage Sale persevered! Barb Umber – Lifeline Purchasing Agent, and Ann Schaub – Director of Development, headed up the brainstorming and organization needed for this event. Water was kept in a refrigerator for refreshment and Barb Umber enforced a strict rule of drinking the cold water to avoid any health concerns. Braving perspiration and dehydration, many hands were involved in unloading bags of clothes, sorting, folding and stacking on tables for the event that stretched from early Friday morning to Saturday afternoon. Pricing was easy - $5 for as many items as you could stuff in a brown paper grocery bag.

Every table was filled with donated clothing items – thousands of pieces varying in size and style were spread across many tables and down two hallways. Flyers had been handed out, and forwarded through email weeks prior to the sale. About 100 bags were sold on Friday alone, including one customer who bought a grand total of 18 bags! “It was wonderful, absolutely wonderful,” commented Barb about the garage sale results.

Not only were clothes sold, but many pieces were donated to other charities as well; bins of stained clothing – unsuitable for sale – were saved back for a woman who cuts up jeans and other materials and creates blankets out of them, donating the resulting blankets to organizations who are in need. Another pile contained all the stretchy sweatpants and comfortable clothes, saved back for the nursing home. All of the men’s black dress pants and shoes were saved for the boys living at Pierceton Woods Academy (Lifeline’s residential home for boys) as professional attire for the on and off campus jobs many of the boys have. Clothing that had been out on tables but was unsold after the two day sale was donated to the Love Church, an inner-city center dedicated to serving youth.

Even the Riverwood Girls got in on the action! (Riverwood is Lifeline’s residential home for girls.) On Thursday, four girls worked to deliver clothing to the church, set up tables, sort the clothing, and hang signage. On Saturday the girls returned to help sort more clothing and to assist with closing the garage sale and organizing the remaining items to be donated to Love Church.  The girls loved helping with the sale and kept the mood light and cheery as they shopped the sale as a reward for their hard work.

The Riverwood Girls helped organize clothing in bins, preparing them for the next Lifeline Garage Sale on August 13^th and 14^th – mark your calendars!!! The girls who helped at the sale were allowed to pick out one bin full of clothing for their own, personal closets. They were grouped with staff to help them “shop” the garage sale and find additional items that would fit their needs. One Riverwood girl commented, “It was fun! I found a whole pile of clothing while I was sorting and shopping.”

“It was by all measure a good success,” said Barb Umber – who is herself, a garage sale fanatic and would be able to measure such things! It was an event filled with work, fun, and excitement – ending in accomplishment. Nothing was wasted – between sales and donations, Lifeline made the most of what they had been given. LifeWater Church was very friendly and accommodating, willing to house the next garage sale as well – rain or shine we hope to see you there!

Lifeline Garage Sale

at LifeWater Church

Friday, August 13^th 9:00am – 6:00pm & Saturday August 14^th 9:00am - Noon

Thousands of clothing items – stuff a bag for $5

One of the best kept secrets at Pierceton Woods Academy is the running group that has formed at the Behavior Modification Wing. In early July, the residents became so serious about it that Tony Campbell, Youth Treatment Specialist, decided to step it up a notch. Mr. Campbell proposed the idea of running a 4K race with three residents of his program. The very next day Kevin Hedrick, the coordinator of Residential, wrote a check to cover all of the entry fees for the race to be held in Columbia City - it was time to begin more rigorous training.

Training became a consistent schedule of running between one and three miles each day after the sun set (around 9 o’clock every night). Shoes were purchased for one resident at a thrift store, while other residents bought their own shoes on home passes. It was obvious to everyone around them that these guys had found a new passion.

When given the option of not racing one night, a runner said, “Are you kidding me? And miss an opportunity of a lifetime?!” The same resident reported that he was feeling confident in the days leading up to the race. Another resident said during their training that his smoking days were over. He recognized that it had been a handicap to his breathing.

On race day, all runners were issued shirts that read “4H-4K - Get Down and Dirty.” They all pushed themselves to their limits and did not give up for one second. A 12-year old resident of the Behavior Modification Wing reported the following: 

The first mile was pretty easy, then my mouth started to get dry and I started to get tired. I started changing the way I was running and wasn’t breathing right. Mr. Campbell was helping me know how to breathe and told me to slow down my pace. Then I was at the finish line and finished in 65^th place out of about one hundred racers. It felt pretty darn good to finish!

The other two runners also placed very well. A 14-year-old, finished in 38^th place and a 15-year-old finished in 71^st place! All their training paid off when they crossed that finish line and knew that they had accomplished something together as a team.

Mr. Campbell and the runners attribute a lot of the unity in the Behavior Modification Wing to the running club. The club has fostered a team mentality that has spilled into all aspects of living under the same roof. It was shared that a few guys had said that this 4K was one of the first things they had ever finished in their lives. Even if nothing else is learned from Lifeline, three guys in our program can now say that they accomplished something they never thought they could. We are blessed to have been a part of that.

What do real solutions mean to a struggling generation?

Twenty-year-old Matt* has been in foster care on and off since he was two years old. The inconsistency and neglect he often experienced caused a sense of bitterness, anger and depression to take hold of him. From the very beginning he struggled with these strong emotions. “You feel sometimes like life is a lie; you see other people resembling biological families asking how you are related to your [foster] family. You make up lies because you are not comfortable telling others the truth of your situation,” said Matt. He says he was often embarrassed and worried about how others would judge his situation and he began to get into trouble, unable to control the emotions that were bottled up inside of him.

After a mandate from the State, Lifeline was able to step in and work in Matt’s life to help him draw from the positive and look toward a bright future. By living at Pierceton Woods Academy—Lifeline’s residential campus—staff members and counselors were able to work directly with Matt in a focused and stable environment. Matt stated, “Now, I look back at my past and I am grateful that the state stepped in to help – otherwise who knows where I would be now…personally, I feel I would be on the streets.”

Matt worked his way up to Lifeline’s Phase III program – a program designed for successful youth who have experienced a real change in their lives and would like to take a further step toward independence. In Phase III youth are helped with finding jobs, schooling, future housing, and other goals they are working toward.

Matt has enthusiastically taken full advantage of the help, encouragement and guidance Lifeline staff has been able to offer him. He is attending college, living on campus, has gotten his driver’s permit, and succeeded in earning a Lifeguarding certification – complete with CPR and 1st Aid certification. Matt is ready to pursue dreams that once seemed impossible.

What do solutions mean to Matt? He answered this with a big smile on his face:

“The beginning of a new life.”

*Name has been changed for privacy