Trevor Smith - passes away [Forum Archive]

Quote:

One Man--or Woman--CAN Change The World!

By Trevor L. Smith

Just want to take the time to wish everyone who comes to the sight and supports Nuclear Nutrition and wonderful and safe Thanksgiving Holiday....and to my Jewish friends, readers and supporters, I would like to wish you a Happy and Healthy Chanukah Seasons seeing how Chanukah starts at 11/29/02 at sundown.
Hopefully everyone will take the time to reflect on how lucky each and everyone of us is to be able to sit down to a hot meal in the company of friends and loved ones...even if it is just a pet dog, cat or even a fish...because there are countless numbers of people who have long since forgotten what it is like to have a home, have people around them that care for them and love them, have friends they can turn to and have a hot meal every night without even a thought.

Everyone who is reading this obviously has all of these wonderful things seeing how you need a computer to access the Internet and this website and I would assume that if one can afford a computer and and Internet connection, then they can afford a warm place to live and can afford to have a warm meal every night.
Try and realize that for those that don't have and may NEVER have, you can make a huge and positive effect on their lives.

Years ago, while still living in New York, I remember laying in bed just as the holiday season was beginning when I started to think about all the less fortunate that lived on the cold city streets in cardboard boxes that spent their day begging for spare change and finding empty soda and beer cans for the 5 cent deposit refund.
I was overwhelmed by the amount of suffering that went on right in front of my eyes and I was left with the thought that nobody cares or helps these people and that I was but a single person and could do little to nothing to help these people.

A few seconds after this thought, my head was immediately filled with another thought and one that was 1000 times more pronounced and powerful. Perhaps I was "hearing a voice" I really do not know, but the thought that entered my mind was: "TREVOR.....ONE MAN CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THE LIVES OF MANY....ONE MAN CAN CHANGE THE WORLD...AND THAT MAN CAN BE YOU SHOULD YOU SO CHOOSE IT"

And so from that moment on I choose that person to be me. The next day I went to a local surplus clothing store and bought as many blankets, socks and gloves as I could afford ...which was basically all of my spending money for the month (whatever was left over after my rent and bills were paid)
I stuffed the blankets and socks and gloves into two oversized garbage bags and boarded the Long Island Railroad into Manhattan. It was a blistering cold evening, as I was only able to make the trip after working and teaching, and I spent the next 4 plus hours walking up and down the city streets looking for the homeless and destitute. When I would find someone in need, I would walk up to them, introduce myself and spend 5 minutes or so getting to know who they were, their names, a little bit about their life and how they wound up on the streets. In short I gave them the greatest gift I possible could give them....I gave them a piece of myself and in exchange they gave me the greatest gift I could ever ask for in sharing with me a piece of themselves. I would then leave them with a fresh pair of thick wool socks, nice warm thermal gloves and a standard issue military field blanket...the perfect things to keep them warm and safe during the brutally harsh winter months in the city.

O.K. so maybe I was only able to help 20 people that year...but something magical was soon about to happen.

The next year at the same time I once again took my saved up money and purchased double the amount of blankets, socks and gloves. Except this time I had a problem in carrying everything by myself. So I asked my friend to take the trip with me in exchange for me taking him to his favorite bar in N.Y.C. (Actually the oldest pub in NYC McSorley's Bar) Truth be told my friend could initially give two shits about what I was doing...he just wanted to go out into the city and get drunk and try and get laid and if that meant helping me hand out some blankets "to the bums" as he so eloquently put it, then so be it.

Another year went by and I had even more money and this time instilled not only my one friend from the year before, but his brother as well--who also was anxious to go into the city and get drunk and hunt for some felines. But a funny thing happened that year. You see the year before my friend would basically go up to someone who was homeless and basically throw them a blanket and socks and gloves and walk away...he did not want to be near "these bums" as he put it.

Seeing this made me sad, but even more so it made me angered...but I needed the help and let it slide. But this time, with his brother along to help as well, I sat the two of them down and said something like this: "I really could give a fuck if you help me or not...I am not here to go out drinking or trying to get laid and I am certainly not hear to try and make my conscience feel better by saying "I gave to the homeless"...I am hear to share myself with those forgotten people that are stepped on and walked over each day as if they are dead carcass'. God forbid something tragic occurs in either of you two's life, because all it takes is one mistake, one stroke of bad luck, one mishap and you could easily be one of "those bums" Sure the blankets, gloves and socks will help them out, but you have a chance to impact someone's life today. You have a chance to let someone know that somewhere out there, just when you least expect it, somebody can appear in front of their eyes and extend a hand in friendship and kindness and let them know that they matter in this world and that there ARE people who care about them and believe in them. Sometimes an action as seemingly simple as taking 5 minutes of your time to get to know someone and share yourself with them can mean all the difference in the world...who knows, maybe they were thinking about killing themselves that day and because of your caring words and kindness they realized that they do matter...even if it is to one person..that one person being you. And maybe this person, whose life you inadvertently saved, has people who are combing the streets looking for them...for they could be someone's uncle, someone's son, somebody's father and because of your actions they did not take their own life and 2 days after their interaction with you, they are found by their family, taken off the streets and are helped back up on their feet...and maybe, just maybe after they get back on their feet, they remember you as the person who saved them and they decide to dedicate the rest of their lives helping others."

After those words, their attitudes were different and they began sharing of their inner selves and all of a sudden I would see what were once callus friends of mine, coming back from spending a few minutes with a homeless person with tears running down their face because of the impact they had and the response they received from helping someone who thought nobody would ever care enough to help them.
After that year, my once one man journey took on a whole new level of activity. People heard about what I was doing and wanted to become a part of it. I began getting donations from people and people volunteering their time to help me when I went into the city. In fact, things got so big (at least compared to how it started) in my last year in NY that I had not only gloves, and socks and blankets and now hats to give out...but I also had so many donations that I could afford to give each person a 5 dollar bill on top of the blankets, socks, gloves and hats

.
To this day, even though I left NY over 4 years ago, there are people who still carry on my tradition. And this is the greatest gift that I have ever received and could ever ask for. It showed me exactly what the "voice" told me: "ONE MAN (OR WOMAN) CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE....A HUGE DIFFERENCE. ONE MAN CAN CHANGE THE WORLD"

Remember this always and your life will be enriched beyond your wildest expectations.

Have a wonderful holiday.