The items collected will go to support the work of Clifton Sanctuary Ministries, Safe House Outreach Program and Retreat on the Street; three Atlanta based ministries that work with the people who are homeless.

On each Thursday in December (the 1st,8th, 15th & 22nd) these organizations will have representatives at information tables in the Food Court from 7:30 AM until 2:30 PM. If you are in the area be sure to stop by and learn more about each ministry. Also on the 22nd the Clifton Singers will make a special appearance at about 11:45 to Carol with all the mall goers. So be sure to drop by for some lively Christmas music.

We would like to the thank Parkway Realty Services, the management company for Peachtree Center for sponsoring and promoting “Dare to Care”.

Dare to Care Atlanta

(All Photos are courtesy of Tony Koontz - click on images to view larger version)

Each October our good neighbors and friends in Candler Park produce the amazing Fall Fest festival and each year the guests at Clifton play a huge part in making it happen.

 This year took on special significance as our newest board member at Clifton Sanctuary Ministries Cherie King co-chaired the event.

 Cherie became familiar with the men from Clifton at last year’s Fall Fest as the guys stepped in to run the children’s section of the festival which benefits Mary Lin Elementary School. The men operated the craft booths, doing everything from making paper dolls to helping the children build wood crafts and operating the inflatable bounce rides.

 Since that weekend Cherie has become very involved with CSM in many ways, most notably organizing a spectacular clothing drive through the elementary school children, stepping in to provide a gourmet meal as evening host in a last minute emergency and now joining our board.

When Cherie took over the organizing of Fall Fest this year the guests at Clifton eagerly jumped on board and made the event happen. They did the heavy work of load in and load out, helped with the fall fest 5K, rescued lost children, ran security for the 15 bands that played at the event, and most importantly took their place as members of a very special community.

Clifton made new friends this year in Candler Park as well as revisited old ones. We are so excited about these new friendships and look forward to partnering together in events that benefit both the Candler Park Neighborhood Association as well as Clifton Sanctuary Ministries.

There were so many butterflies in the Clifton organic garden this year and obviously they were attracted by Robbie’s Mexican sunflowers!

 We are so glad our neighbor, friend and professional photographer Ulrich Brinkmann caught these photos for us.

Click here to view his website www.ulrichbrinkmann.com

Neighbors and friends of MaryLin Elementary School, including some of the guests at Clifton Night Hospitality and Joe’s Place got together to spread a thick layer of soft mulch over the entire play area at the school to keep it a booboo-free area for the children.  As always, a great time was had by coming together as a community for a common cause.  We really do have the greatest neighbors!

Signed,

The Robinsons

Corey, Tasha, Kyra, Corey, Tatiana & Snowflake

  Discovering Opportunities for Outreach and Reflection (DOOR) is a faith based network of urban service-learning programs that expose, educate, challenge, and motivate participants to respond to the issues and concerns facing an increasingly urban world.  Program offerings range from a weekend to a year and include opportunities for individuals and groups.

Each Wednesday throughout this summer a different group of  volunteers through the DOOR – Atlanta program will be visiting Clifton and rolling up their sleeves to pitch in with the day to day operations and to learn more about homelessness and what they can do back in their own hometowns to make a difference.

This week Clifton hosted a youth group from First Presbyterian Church in Palaski, TN.  When our youth group volunteers arrive at Clifton the staff introduce themselves and our Volunteer Coordinator has them step back outside to begin a mock intake session to help them understand what our guests experience as they come to our Night Hospitality Program. They learn about all the different things we do at the Ministry, including Joe’s Place, Joe’s Ladder and Clifton Living. We offer them education on homelessness and sometimes they get to visit and talk to a couple of our guests and hear about their experiences.

Thank you First Presbyterian Youth Misson Group!

Thank you so much Garden Hills!

Recently we were visited by 20 6th and 8th grade students from Wake Forest, NC who were in Atlanta doing a Haiti simulation misson training. They slept in makeshift huts for a week in 90 degree weather and ate uncooked food from trash bags to gain a deeper empathy for what the earthquake survivors are going through in that nation.

After 5 days of intense heat and no showers they headed over to Clifton sanctuary Ministries where they volunteered for 9 hours before finally being able to retire to a motel to cool off and clean up.

Our clothing closet had backed up with donations for a few weeks so they had mounds of clothes to sort by type, condition and size. The enitre dining are of Night Hosspitality looked like a clothing factory as they set up tables and beagn building piles. Many of the clothes needed to be washed and folded so they did that too.  They swept and cleaned the downstairs, polished the stainless steel freezers and ice machines and then took a very short break as they waited for our guests to come home so they could serve them dinner alongside of our dear friends at Community Friendship.  

The group was amazing, especially considering what they had already gone through during the earlier part of the week. And they really made the clothing closet ship shape once again. Thank you Wake Forest and Thank you Community Friendship!

OptumHealth

Recently we recived a phone call from Carmen M. Aponte, Sr. Administrative Assistant at OptumHealth  in Plano Texas. She explained that OptumHealth was having it’s 2nd quarter meeting in Atlanta at their Dunwoody offices and they wanted to do a community service activity with their budget instead of the usual corporate dinner. They found out about Clifton from our web page and contacted us. They asked everyone attending the meeting to bring one of each thing on the Clifton wish list. Clifton Resident Manager Reggie Jones took the seats out of the Clifton van and drove it  to the headquarters near Perimeter Mall and loaded  it up with the bags of donations while Donald Long talked to the board members about the many wonderful things that Clifton does. One board member followed Donald to the elevator and wrote out a personal check while thanking Clifton for the work that we do. You just never know where your blessings will come from. THANK YOU OPTUMHEALTH!