DECEMBER 15, 2023 COMMUNITY It's the Christmas season, and when you think of Christmas time you think of movies like “A Miracle on 34th Street,” “Charlie Brown's Christmas,” “The Grinch,” “It's a Wonderful Life” or “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” — all movies where the forces of good nature win out, with demonstrations of kind-heartedness towards someone and spreading happiness in the atmosphere. When I think of Christmas, I think of the Christmas parties at the Mercy House on W. Huron St. down the street from the Delonis Center. They roll out the red carpet to spread Christmas cheer and genuine love to the homeless community. Mercy House is a project of M.I.S.S.I.O.N., which is a non-profit started by Caleb Poirier and others like Brian Durrance, who are still involved. Mercy House itself is a hospitality house started by owner Peggy Lynch and Sheri Wander. For people who don't know the background of Mercy House and/or M.I.S.S.I.O.N., they evolved from a project called Camp Take Notice which was a tent community governed by the homeless community who lived there. When Camp Take Notice was eliminated by the authorities, M.I.S.S.I.O.N. was formed to continue related work. Peggy bought the house on W. Huron St. about 10 years ago. They serve meals there on Monday and Wednesday evenings and have a wellknown Saturday breakfast. That breakfast all started from the spirit of Christmas. One of Mercy House’s other projects is to host a large Christmas party for the homeless and recently housed. Anyone really is welcome, and I'm only saying this based on my personal experience. Before founding Mercy House, Peggy Lynch visited Camp Take Notice (the tent community), invited by a friend. She simply fell in love with the community, the environment and just being among humans. After being engaged with the community for one year, she decided to have a Christmas party at her personal residence. For her, it was nothing out of the normal to host an event like this. It was a big Christmas party; everyone from the tent community was invited. She asked different friends of hers in different faith groups to help out and they were very excited to. At one of the Christmas parties before they had the house of hospitality, Peggy noticed a person named Steve going on the back deck crying. As a good party hostess, she wanted to know what was going on with Steve. He said he was completely GROUNDCOVER NEWS Mercy House is the place to be on Christmas Day JOE WOODS Groundcover vendor No. 103 overwhelmed at the thought that he and other people from the camp community would be welcomed to someone's house for a Christmas party. That response had a very big impact on her, being a mom and a grandma. When I interviewed Peggy, she said being a part of a community and making an impact in it was very powerful for her. She and her friend Sonya started having Sunday dinner at Camp Take Notice every single week, inviting people from the faith communities to join them. This still happens to this day with the every-other-week meals at M.I.S.S.I.O.N's Purple House or Wheeler Park, which alternate with Washtenaw Camp Outreach at Wheeler and in other locations during the winter. Living in a world where one thing leads to the next, Peggy said that when you're a part of a community like this, you see where there is a gap. It could be someone who passed away and needs a proper burial, birthday celebration, wedding, someone who has a child and needs some clothes, someone pregnant and about to deliver and needs a baby shower to get necessary supplies, or just providing a space to observe, celebrate and become a tighter community together by bringing people together. So with her genuine love for people, Peggy got more involved in helping what society considers the less fortunate or cast out, the homeless. Peggy is a lawyer by occupation and because her heart was with the homeless community, she involved the wider community, including the corporation she works for. Peggy understood what being poor felt like, growing up very poor herself, going through college and getting married. Just like a lot of people in that situation, she tried hard to get out of it and became a workaholic. Although she was very successful in law and started her own law firm, she spent decades clawing her way out of poverty. Then Peggy had an ‘aha’ moment where she felt she needed more in her life: she needed human relationships, she needed meaning. She started volunteering at numerous nonprofits. 7 Gracie Sheldon, David Williams, Peggy Lynch, Michael Clayvon, Walter Harris and Alonzo Young on the porch of Mercy House on W. Huron Street. Photo credit: Joe Woods. During this time, she met Gracie, a woman who was at the Delonis Center and shared Peggy’s passion. Gracie wanted to be a blessing to other people and help them. Experiencing abuse at the Delonis Center, she still found it in her heart to help people in need, even the people who hurt her. Housed now, Gracie is a large part of Mercy House despite whatever struggles she goes through in life — internal or external. The wider community within the homeless community is what helps people realize that no matter your background, we’re human and our job is to spread love and enjoy doing it. Talking to Cynthia Price, The editor of Groundcover News who has been involved with M.I.S.S.I.O.N. for a few years, I learned that Price has purchased small Christmas presents for the party for the last two years out of pocket — mostly because she always forgets to be reimbursed! It makes her feel happy to have direct contact with people and actually get in tune with people's needs so they can tell her what they really need rather than what someone else may think they need. I chose this article, this organization and these people to interview in order to let Groundcover readers know that although Christmas is only celebrated once a year, M.I.S.S.I.O.N consistently helps less fortunate people celebrate other holidays and just being in a community because of the love they have for people. At Christmastime, with the help of Peggy and those who help her turn it up 100 notches — there is delicious food, gifts large and small, music and fun — and they do it unselfishly without seeking approval from their peers or boasting for their own self-satisfaction. They generally do it in silence, but more and more people know via wordof-mouth about the party, which is attended by 400 people or so. As Peggy says, this is what we as a civilization should do more of — be a blessing to your fellow brother or sister, show love from the heart and don’t look at a person’s financial or social status as much as at their being a human who deserves happiness.
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