Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children.

As part of our upcoming annual banquet, I'm interviewing homeless men who frequent our shelter to get their stories. I want our donors to see real people who have real needs and real pain and real issues. Needless to say, what I'm hearing is breaking my heart.

The theme for this years banquet is "One Passion. One Purpose. One Vision. Rescue Them."

No shock to anyone, I went in to yet another project here as a professional. I had a job to do.

The venue will house 48 tables with 8 people to table. The people at those tables include corporate heads and CEOs of some of the largest companies in Washington State. One of those tables will have one of the wealthiest men in the United States. You may have heard of him. You drink his coffee all the time.

I had this idea that each table should "sponsor" a different homeless person. The theme, after all, is "Rescue them." So what could be better than showing everyone who "them" is. Each place setting will have a picture of a real person, their name, their age, where they're from, what their hobbies and skills are, and how they got to be homeless. Inside each of these little tents is a remit device to give donations. The left side of the tent is perforated and rips off to create a bookmark the donor can take with them as a reminder of what their dollars went to.

I realized, shortly after having this ingenious idea that I single-handedly gave myself a TON of work to do. 48 homeless people need to be interviewed, documented, compensated for their time and photographed. Then ALL of those photographs need to be retouched and aged (to fit with my design concept). Then 384 tents need to be assembled with all of the materials for the 48 tables.

I'm pretty good at shooting myself in the foot. I'm also pretty good at getting caught up in the work and the details and forgetting to have a heart.

That was remedied today when I met my first client:

Adam
26
Born in Auburn, WA.
Plays the guitar and sings song about peace and social equality.

"Before I became homeless I lived in Olympia. I was doing part time work doing yard care and working full time as a care giver for my mother. She was sick with breast cancer. The cancer spread through her body and she needed a lot of love and care. I took her to her treatments and stayed with her.

My mother passed from this world to heaven on June 25, 2011. My mother was an amazing woman who always helped anyone she could even though she was living month to month. I miss her so much. When I became homeless I was sick with grief and sadness and mourning.

I became homeless because I didn't save money or prepare for what would happen after she passed. I spent most all my time with her and I didn't know anyone in Olympia who could help. I didn't think about anything else. I just wanted to be there for my mom."

After talking with Adam I thanked him. I smiled and shook his hand. So few homeless people are used to being touched. Most people don't touch them because they're dirty or, at least, they think they're dirty. It means the world to a homeless person to be patted on the back or have their hand shaken. I gave him vouchers for housing and took his photograph. And then, once again, I shut myself in my office and cried.

How can so many people in the community walk by and not look?!?! How can they put their blinders on and do nothing?!?! Adam isn't a drug addict. He's not a violent criminal. He's just a kid who lost his mother and didn't have a plan.

It just makes me so sad.