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One Man's Personal Crusade to Feed the Less Fortunate By Ray Dyer - The Sooner Catholic - July 13, 2003 |
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OKLAHOMA CITY -- Rick Swyden
pulls his SUV into the alley and no sooner has he hopped out of the
vehicle than dozens and dozens of people stream up to the now opened
tailgate.
Empty hands reach out and Swyden, his wife, Susan, and Sister Barbara Joseph quickly fill them with brown paper sacks. Inside each sack is a hot dog, a bag of chips, two cookies and a bottle of water. Welcome to Hot Dogs for the Homeless. Welcome to Rick Swyden's world. Every Sunday, this 1978 graduate of Mount St. Mary High School, with help from his wife, their children and a few good friends, cook, sack and deliver hot dogs to the dozens of homeless people who live on the streets of downtown Oklahoma City. His first excursion in January required 16 hot dogs. Today it takes some 200 dogs to get the job done. At times even that's not enough. Swyden hurts when a person arrives at the tailgate too late. "That's all right," a woman with long red hair tells him. "You'll remember the two of us next time," she says, pointing to her friend. Another woman, a small girl in her arms and a little boy at her side, also arrive too late to get a sack. "Oh, no. I am so sorry," Swyden says. "Oh, I hate it when this happens," he says, doubling over. The woman with the two children offers a slight nod of understanding, then turns to walk away. Just as she is about to leave, two men step forward; one offers an unopened bag of chips, the other hands over his two cookies. Another man standing nearby pipes up. "Can they split it?" he asks, offering his still wrapped hot dog to the little children. Watching this scene unfold is Sister Barbara Joseph. The Carmelite nun is making her first hot dog run. Her youth group at St. John the Baptist Church in Edmond decorated the sacks for this week's delivery. Next week, she says, the youth of Villa Teresa are in charge. The image of the homeless sharing with those who have even less prompts Sister Barbara to declare; "This is the Body of Christ." |
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Swyden is an independent businessman who owns and operates Lifetime Video. It's a business he runs out of his home. Mike Velte, his right-hand man, as Swyden describes him, is usually with him on the hot dog run. Velte created the Web site for http://www.hotdogsforthehomeless.com. From time to time, Susan will also go on the | |||||||||||||||
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Sunday afternoon mission of
mercy. But normally she's the one in the kitchen making sure everything is cooked and packed neatly into the boxes that are stacked in the back of the SUV. "It's a system," her husband says. And it is a system that could use some outside support. Swyden said several good friends have contributed to his ministry, but each week he pulls a few more dollars out of his own pocket. With five children and an independent business to run, every cent adds up. Swyden said it was New Year's Day in San Antonio, Texas, when the Hot Dogs for the Homeless idea originated, although he believes the first seeds were actually planted weeks earlier during a RENEW meeting hosted in his home. The Swydens attend St. Joseph Old Cathedral. "We were talking about social justice and how we should be reaching out to the less fortunate," Swyden said, referring to the RENEW discussion. A few weeks later, he and his wife were with a group of friends having fun along the south Texas Riverwalk when he noticed a homeless man. Everyone else walked by, but for some reason Swyden sat down next to this man and started a conversation. "He looked very bad, his hands and clothes were filthy, but his eyes were incredibly kind," Swyden |
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said. Swyden knew he had to feed the man. He ran after his
party and told them what he had to to. One of his friends pointed
out an A&W concession. Swyden said he ordered a hamburger and fries
for his new friend. "The guy said, 'I'm sorry sir, this A&W does not sell hamburgers, we only sell hot |
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dogs."
"That'll do," Swyden thought to himself. Swyden then rushed back to where he had left the homeless man, but he was gone. Vanished. He searched for him, but no luck. Finally, he gave the food to a homeless couple. Then he went back to his hotel room and cried. He said he cried for an hour. |
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"I don't know why," he said. The following week, Hot Dogs for the Homeless debuted on the streets of Oklahoma City. |
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Swyden and his band of
helpers don't just toss a sack of food at a homeless person and then
scurry off looking for the next. They listen to each person.
They talk with them. They know many by their first names.
Swyden hugs them and tells them God loves them. On this day, he
introduces Sister Barbara Joseph as "a special guest." She prays
with many of them, holding their hands, while Swyden and his wife place
their hands on the shoulders of the homeless person. On a cold Sunday last February, Swyden's oldest son, Christ, removed his ski gloves and placed them on the hands of a man known as Steve who lives in a doorway just off Classen. A tear forms in Swyden's eye as he tells the story. But there's no time for that now, a homeless man has been spotted in a clump of trees. "Hey brother," Swyden says to the shirtless man, "Are you hungry?" He gives "Ernie" a sack of food and asks if he'd like Sister Barbara to pray with him. Ernie says yes, he says this is the first time he's ever met a sister. "I've seen them on TV before, but never in real life." They kneel around the bed of carpet and cardboard hidden in the clump of trees and trash. Sister Barbara begins to pray. Send tax-free donations for Hot Dogs for the Homeless: Carmelite Sisters of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus attn: Hot Dogs for the Homeless 1300 Classen Dr. Okla. City, OK 73103
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