Angelique's Afterthoughts: Sunday 3/14

Any drive for donations I have ever been involved with has included the phrase "new or gently used", which sounds nice enough, but is generally a code phrase for 'old used stuff you want to get rid of'. N Street Village works very differently. After volunteering at Martha's Table in the morning, we were off to N Street Village for an introduction and tour of the facility. The cheerful & enthusiastic woman guiding us through the facility emphasized over and over again the idea of respect for the women. This respect was evident in many ways as we learned more about N Street Village, but perhaps most of all in their policy for accepting donations. Unlike the standard "New of Gently Used" descriptor, N Street Village only accepts new items. New bedsheets, new shoes, new rugs. They don't want the women to receive old, tattered or stained items. As our guide said, many of these women may have never really had something NEW before. The goal of N Street Village is to build the women up, to help them better themselves and their lives. And one small way they feel they can add to this effort is by showing them respect through giving them new sheets to sleep on at night. As small of a gesture as this might seem, it speaks a lot for the attitude of N Street Village towards the women they are caring for. They truly are working to create an atmosphere of respect; a community for the women to live in and be a part of.