Changing Lives boss praises volunteers for providing help to homeless
By: Dale King
Operating a service that provides aid to the homeless is a big job. “We can’t do anything without the volunteers,” James Batmasian, founder of the Changing Lives assistance organization in Boca Raton, told a crowd Saturday at the group’s third annual Unity Day Expo Fair at Hughes Park in the Pearl City neighborhood of Boca Raton.
Known to the needy as “Mr. B,” he told the crowd gathered on cloudy, cool day: “Please succeed in your life.” And paraphrasing a Biblical passage, he added: “Take the fishing rod and learn to fish.”
Batmasian sponsors Unity Day each year to connect families in need to a variety of resources to find solutions to their fundamental challenges. The goal is to help disadvantaged and underprivileged families struggling during these trying times and those at risk of being homeless by providing and informing them of all the available resources each nonprofit and other organizations have to offer.
Among those on hand for the Dec. 17 event was Marie Hester from DISC (Developing Interracial Social Chains). For 32 years, she said, she has “been helping the poor create a dialogue with the community.” Her group is currently doing a survey of Pearl City, Boca Raton’s oldest neighborhood, originally platted in 1915, so it can get more recognition.
DISC also operates the Pearl City Family Gardens, located across Glades Road from Hughes Park in front of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Twenty-one students from Dixie Manor take care of the crops, collect vegetables and donate them to the poor. The group just harvested collard greens for an elderly woman who can no longer cook. Marie said she is going to prepare the delicacy for her.
The organization collaborates with several master gardeners, including Lynn Russell, who was just named to the Boca Raton Historical Society’s Walk of Recognition.
Organizers expected 20 nonprofits to attend the event which offered free food and beverages donated by Rebel House Boca, along with entertainment, health screenings, prizes and activities for kids.
Among the non-profits attending were:
- First United Methodist Church, which started the men’s shower and laundry program for the homeless.
- Homeless Hearts Food International, which provides food relief, housing assistance and mentoring.
- Breaking the Chains Outreach Ministries, which works with at-risk children, the elderly, homeless and the needy.
- AVDA (Aid to Victims of Domestic Abuse, Inc.), which promotes violence-free relationships and social change by offering alternative choices to end violence and domestic abuse.
Several speakers also offered the crowd words of encouragement.
“We have a divided nation, but we are all in this together,” said Pastor Tony Lowden from Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., who was chosen for the post by former President Jimmie Carter. “You never know when you could end up homeless.”
The minister admitted he has seen the seamy side of life, growing up in a “speakeasy house” where he had to pick up discarded needles and liquor bottles. “I was thrown out. I was homeless. I had to sleep in a park.”
God intervened, he noted, and he urged the homeless in the crowd to believe in the Lord. “I pray with all that’s in me that you will continue to have hope.”
Charles Conklin, assistant pastor at Ebenezer Church, led a prayer, calling on everyone in the crowd to connect with God, “whose name is the name above all names. I’m glad to see people of all ethnic groups who have come here to seek love and connection.”
Changing Lives of Boca Raton, Inc is a 501C3 nonprofit organization dedicated to enriching the lives of those experiencing homelessness. Its programs aim to prepare clients for gainful employment and support individuals’ return to independent and self-sustaining living.
The organization also aids with scholarships for sober living facilities and detox, housing stipends, costs for mental and physical care, personal documentation and endowments for business start-ups.
For more information visit https://changinglives.me/, Facebook page @changinglivesBR, Instagram page @changinglivesbocaraton or call 561-961-4635.
