2024 Executive Director Reflection

Dear Friend,

I’ve been watching my fair share of cheesy Christmas movies over the last several weeks. While I enjoy seeing the sad orphan or widow reconnecting to their Christmas spirit; the lonely, over-achieving career woman finding love with a carpenter restoring an old church in her hometown; and the venture capitalist saving the independent bookstore instead of putting it out of business as much as the next gal, I do have a gripe with the Christmas movie cliche that idealizes small towns over big cities. While big cities may have bigger problems than small towns and a pace of life that can leave less time for baking cookies and crafting hand-made Christmas ornaments, it is simply not true that small-town folks have stronger values or care about their neighbors more than big-city residents do. Big cities also have big hearts. 

Everyone Home DC’s supporters like you prove this again and again and again. All year long, I watched you show love for your unhoused and housing-insecure neighbors in our big city. Here are a few examples:

• Point in Time Count volunteers spent hours outside on a cold January night ensuring that every person sleeping outside and their experience of homelessness was documented so that the city can understand the size, demographics, and needs of our homeless population.
• Individuals from religious congregations and community organizations prepared and shared home-cooked meals with about 80 guests at Shirley’s Place at least once a month. For Thanksgiving, one church delivered mini-pies to make our guests’ holiday meals special.
• Community members organized in-kind drives within their workplaces, schools, and religious organizations to ensure that people living outside had plenty of water and sports drinks to keep them hydrated (nearly 4,000 bottles of water were donated) in the hottest summer months and that they always had the hygiene items necessary to preserve both their health and their dignity (3,000 hygiene kits were created).
• Several faith communities worked together to plan and host an educational forum on homelessness and how best to support unhoused neighbors.
• A Girls Scout troop spent time learning about homelessness and then assembled toiletry kits, which they donated to our Outreach and Day Center program along with a portion of their cookie sale earnings. 
• Small businesses hosted events, contributed a portion of their proceeds to support Everyone Home DC, and donated dozens of items to our silent auction.
• Scores of supporters made the holidays special for Everyone Home DC families by donating gift cards that enabled parents to prepare Thanksgiving meals with all their family favorites and pick out just the right holiday gifts for each of their kids. Another group brought the merry by providing Christmas trees, ornaments, and lights delivered right to their homes!

All of the above acts of kindness were in addition to the other generous financial contributions you made or plan to make through year-end giving. Indeed, all of you city slickers routinely demonstrate strong values that include caring about the well-being of both loved ones and strangers and sharing your blessings with those who have the greatest needs. I dare say that the District of Columbia I know is overflowing with the kind of generosity and commitment to a loving community that many Christmas movies imply is lacking from big city life. Thank you for all the ways, big and small, that you support Everyone Home DC and people experiencing homelessness. You are what makes our big city great. 

I wish you all a joyful holiday season and that the love you have given returns to you tenfold!

With love and gratitude,
Karen Cunningham
Everyone Home DC
Executive Director