Merle’s Millions
this is merle. on saturdays, a bunch of friends and i work at a soup kitchen called “the breakfast club..” there’s an official name for the breakfast club, but it’s not very memorable. so much in fact, that i don’t remember what it is..
merle is one of our regular clubbers.
one saturday, he asked douggie (seated on the right) what $50 could do for a needy family. douggie said it could probably do alot, feed them, clothe them, etc.. so merle pulled a benjamin out of his pocket and said, “take this, keep fifty for a needy family, and make the other fifty into more.. and bring it back to me in a few weeks..”
so, to make a long story short, douggie challenged his church congregation (he called it merle’s challenge, but i thought merle’s millions sounded more snazzy..) and they went nuts. they sold pennies for a buck, sold freshly roasted coffee, sold photos, all sorts of things..
in the end, they turned merle’s fifty bucks into somewhere over two thousand bucks.. amazing. the coolest part was that this all came from within the ranks of breakfast club and helped out a family right here in town.
without all the bureaucracy and headaches, merle took the bull by the horns proved that people really can help each other out in a meaningful way..
that rocks..
if someone out there worked on this project, i would totally dig if they left in the comments the total brought in for merle’s millions and left some links where people find find more info..
thanks, merle..
January 4th, 2007 at 9:17 am
I work for the church that helped distribute the money, so I thought you might want to know a little more about the family that received the largest portion of it…
About 3/4 of the money went to a local mom with 7 (count ‘em — SEVEN) kids. The older four kids are teenage girls, and their dad abandoned them years ago. Mom gets no support from him. Her second husband (the father of the younger kids) died, leaving her to also care for them alone.
She has some health issues that keep her on medication continuously, but she still works because that’s the only way she can afford health insurance to pay for the meds. Her job is minimum wage, 3rd shift, and only about 30 hours/week. She did receive food stamps, but those were cut way back because she now works too many hours.
This is just a working class mom living below poverty level and doing everything she can to take care of her kids, but it’s never enough. One cool thing: she told us she makes sure they’re all home for dinner every night at 5:30, and they always eat as a family.
When we told her about Merle’s Challenge and explained that we were paying off her past-due utility bills, then handed her a gift card for a month’s worth of groceries, she was totally floored. She just sat there with her mouth open.
To top it off, one of the small groups here at our church adopted the family for Christmas and bought them a ton of clothes and gifts. Somebody else bought them all shoes. We also “borrowed” the Christmas tree from the church foyer and put it in her living room to make things a little more festive.
More stuff like this needs to happen here, and not just at Christmas. This was a very cool thing. Thanks, Merle and Doug (the guys in the picture), for getting this started. And thanks, Serg, for telling about it.
January 4th, 2007 at 9:48 am
Well this is something to be proud of for all involved. My son Mike helped raise some of this money, I am so very proud of him. I am proud of all of you. It takes more time and effort to not do something than it does to do something. I pray that this will continue to grow and prosper and touch many lives. Rememer that not only is the family in need touched, so are those that took the time to get involved and see this through. God is Smiling because of this.
God is Good,
Kevin Little and Family
January 4th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
I helped a little with merle’s challenge. There was about $2,100 raised, which is nothing short of awesome! It was an amazing thing to witness. We hope to produce a video and pass the challenge on to other groups and churches. For so long we have sent people to other countries to give aid and comfort. We hope that Merle’s challenge will bring the healing, an encouragement to people here at home too. If you want information about how you can take the challenge, please contact me.
January 4th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Oh, one more thing…
So often, mission trips and charity efforts tend to be too short-term and too shallow to bring lasting help. Our hope with Merle’s Challenge is more than just initiating an event that helps some deserving people out. The hope behind Merle’s Challenge is that it sets off some spiritual mindset- change that helps us realize that we are not our own, and that we have been given the divine privilige of living a total lifestyle of generousity.
January 4th, 2007 at 3:42 pm
We’re regular attenders of the church that sponsored Merle’s challenge–in fact our son Colby helped raise some of the money. We’re proud of him for just wanting to help.
It was just amazing to see so many people come together to support this effort. Thanks Merle for your great idea and thanks to Doug too for giving us this challenge.
God Bless this community and all the caring people in it!
January 5th, 2007 at 12:15 am
Merle reached me though not with money,
rather with the simplicity of his gift.
I live in Long Beach, CA which is only a
whisper away from Los Angeles…I find
myself inundated with celebrity news,
award shows, the latest and greatest in
fashion, as well as where/when to be
seen…thank you all for helping me see …
the star light can be so blinding. I’ll do
my part on this end - not sure what yet-
I’ll re-direct the light somehow! Thanks Serg for keeping me in the loop…your Cuz “Alie Baby”