Church hands out 'warmth' for needy
By John Joyce
Published in News on November 15, 2015 3:05 AM
Full Size
News-Argus/JOHN JOYCE
Willie Sykes, right, shops for shoes at Saturday's Warm the World clothing and cold weather supply drive at First Baptist Church. More than 500 people turned out for the event.
Some got there as early as 5:30 a.m.
Others said they had been there since 3:30.
By the time the doors opened at the First Baptist Church in Goldsboro at 8 a.m. Saturday -- with the temperature hovering around the mid-40s -- the line wrapped around the building at North John Street and Chestnut Street all the way up to Center Street.
More than 500 people lined up for the church's annual Warm the World clothing and supply drive. They were waiting to get their hands on coats, blankets, sleeping bags and anything else they could fit in their bags. The event provides families in need with everything from shoes, hats and socks to gloves, undergarments to outerwear.
But first each person gets a hot breakfast and a heartfelt greeting from the church's many volunteers.
"We let 175 in first for breakfast," organizer Sherry Archibald said. "We then pull out about 30 at a time to go and do their shopping, and then when those 30 go out, we let 30 more in."
The clothing drive begins each year as soon as the previous event ends. By the time the date comes around again, a year's worth of donated clothing and supplies await the throngs of people coming in seeking to keep warm for another winter.
To the congregation's surprise however, not all of the people who come to them for help are homeless or in shelters. Some are working families who simply do not have enough, Ms. Archibald said.
"I think there is just a strong need. I know that one of my church members said she spoke with one of the families and they don't have heat. They have a roof over their head but no heat. So blankets are a huge need," she said. "Coats of course, but blankets are a huge need."
Abby Martinez did not wish to share how old he is, but said he came to Goldsboro from the Bronx, N.Y., 13 years ago. He said when he embarked on the trip, he was only intending stay for a while.
"I came for a visit ,and here I am," he said.
Things did not work out the way Martinez envisioned they would, so for the past three or four years he said he has come to the Warm the World event to get what he needs to make it through the colder months of the year.
So have Brenda Baker and her cousin Ruby Radford.
"I've been knowing this church for a long time," Mrs. Baker said. She and Radford have been coming to the clothing drive and other events at First Baptist for about five years.
"They know us. We come over here all the time," Radford said. As if on cue, a volunteer approached and greeted the two as they sat down to breakfast.
"I remember you from last year," he said.
And so it goes. Annually, 300 to 500 Goldsboro citizens, many of them with small children, fill the breakfast hall inside the church and wait for their number to be called. They are then guided back to the gymnasium where they are handed a garbage bag and led down the aisles gathering up pairs of shoes and then socks, and so on and so forth until they have all they need -- or all they can carry -- and then it is back out into the cold until next year.
Some do try to take advantage, Ms. Archibald explained. She had to tell one of this year's new volunteers that explaining to a woman who said she had six grandchildren at home that she could only take what she absolutely needed and leave some for the hundreds more coming behind her, was all part of the job.
But for the most part, she said, everybody knows the routine.
Take Willie Sykes, 78. Sykes said he learned about the event from a friend and so he showed up. He wanted two pairs of gloves but understood he could only take one. And from then on it was one of everything for Willie. One pair of socks, one undershirt.
"Medium," he said to the volunteer helping guide him to the right size. And one pair of underwear.
"Medium," he said again.