Jennifer Gray with students from the Cardinal Newman and Ursuline High School yearbook classes who will be helping her distribute and collect the sleeping bags. Photo by Max Friedauer.
Sonoma Native Jennifer Gray accepts she cannot single-handedly solve the homeless problem – but she can help. A teacher in the liberal arts department of Santa Rosa’s Ursuline High School, Gray has annually led donation drives to aid those whom circumstance has pushed onto the streets.
A veteran of San Francisco’s Project Homeless Connect, Gray has organized three annual coat drives. Last year’s yielded 2,385 coats alone. After distributing the winter wear directly to 1,600 individuals, with the help of an army of 56 students, Gray was able to donate a remaining 70 coats to volunteer emergency assistance organization F.I.S.H. (Friends in Sonoma Helping).
This year, Gray will direct her efforts toward The Living Room, a respite for homeless women and children in Santa Rosa, which had a specific need – sleeping bags. The organization is seeking 150 to 200 new and gently used sleeping bags to help its constituency through the winter. As in prior years, additional donations will be delivered to the Sonoma County Task Force on Homelessness and to F.I.S.H.
“One thing I’ve learned is that it’s not my place to fix it, it’s just my place to alleviate some of the indignity of it,” said Gray, who will collect and inventory the donations and oversee their distribution by her students. “It’s important to me that the kids have the experience of looking someone in the eye and doing something that changes their life.”
As a troubled teen, Gray herself experienced a period of homelessness that sensitized her to the myriad issues the homeless face, not the least of which is the cold.
“Aside from why they’re there, how they’re there – they’re still alive in the middle of the night when they are cold,” explained Gray, who then dramatically underscored her point. “It was about two winters ago and I had 400 coats in my living room when a man died in Depot Park, two blocks over, because he froze to death. That makes me want to cry. I had everything in my living room and he died in the bathroom at Depot Park. It’s horrible.”
Those interested in donating sleeping bags can contact Gray at 707.953.6034. The drive continues through Nov.15.
