This is one of the nicest and most hopeful things I’ve read in a while. To learn about what Clean Socks Hope (8th Street Mission) and 8th Street Pizza are doing, go here.
You probably already know about NA Social, which is winding down: NA Social’s about to be dead, so “Long Live NA Social.”
It’s a heckuva going-away testimonial from Clean Socks Hope. To Kelly and Beth: thank you, ladies.
There’d Be No Us, If Not for Them, by Jeff Minton (Clean Socks Hope; 29 April 2019)
There is certainly enough heartbreak to go around. I get to see it first hand every day. I see the cruelest acts and the most profound. On Sunday April 7, 2019 our friends Kelly and Beth wrote of their final chapter of their social media page New Albany Social. In a few days they’ll be gone.
What a shame, what an absolute shame.
We’ve done ministry for 11 years and beginning year 8 in New Albany and I can say without a doubt that there would be no us had it not been for a chance encounter with a mutual friend and an introduction to Kelly and Beth.
And because of Andrew Nicholson, a skateboarding throwback from the 1960’s, who loves eclectic and loves people he introduced us to the world and to Kelly and she did what she does and wrote about us.
We blew up.
We were in the newspaper, 3 local TV stations featured us, MSN picked up our story which caused a staffer on the nationally syndicated Bobby Bones show to talk about it and finally because of all that love they saw us in Cincinnati and the media group the hosts Louisville Pizza Week invited us to be part of that week.
We became legit. We have street cred all because a girl from the city loves her hometown and wrote about an extremely small idea to help feed the homeless. Pay it forward. Kelly and Beth have become the epitome of that concept.
In December, when our Midtown Christmas Store leadership realized that we were in the weeds we put a call out to Kelly and Beth and they along with others shopped—with their own money—and provided 80 hard working families Christmas. Their love impacted the lives of 241 adults from 4 counties in 2 states and 308 children! Thanks to their heart, 35 of you shopped, some multiple times and over 100 different families donated.
That one act of generosity created a “Love Thy Neighbor,” phenomenon this past Christmas that most social justice workers have never seen. #lovelocal
So, in closing, I just want to say that you both have become a light for us at 8thStreet and your impact and legacy will never be repeated. WE owe you.
You both are the women that we pray our sons will marry and the hope for our daughters to become.
My grandfather had a friend who was a famous politician that you both are probably too young to remember. He had a saying that I have used as my mantra most of my adult life.
It is simply, “I have been booed by bigger and better crowds.” I hope that spirit, that moxie stays with you always!
I don’t know who the hate mongers are who hide behind their little blue light screens and produce bile and hurt, but we love them anyway because Kelly, Beth and the socialites know that, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” ~John 1:5
Ladies, thank you for all you have done for us and this place we live and work. We love you. And PLEASE don’t go changing!
Jeff, Shelly and the entire 8thStreet Family
#lovelocal #neighborslovingneighbors #pizzaforgood #nasociallives
