This issue of Real Change kicks off Reader Appreciation Week — which goes from May 2 through GiveBIG on May 9 — and gives our vendors an opportunity to show how much you mean to them.
The relationships between our vendors and readers have always been at the transformative heart of what Real Change does. When we survey our vendors, they always tell us the same thing: The conversations they have with readers, day in and day out, help them feel like they are part of the Real Change family.
Instead of being seen as “poor,” “homeless” or “needy,” or maybe just feeling invisible, our vendors are seen as having something to offer. Through their own efforts, they are improving their own lives and the lives of those around them.
They are ambassadors of change. Street-level emissaries of grassroots media. Purveyors of community connection.
But without you — their readers, customers and friends — all of this would be hollow. They’d just be one more person, standing alone, feeling frustrated and powerless.
More than 10 years ago, I had a conversation with a Real Change donor that has stayed with me.
As a young man, this person moved to the United States from a village in Austria. One of the things he missed most was the way strangers there spoke to each other on the street.
Life in America, he found, was a relatively lonely experience.
He used to find those conversations here at bus stops, but over time, he found that these were less and less possible. People at bus stops mostly wear ear buds now and stare into their phones.
Cafés and coffee shops offered similar disappointment. Where once existed conversation and community now sit those who are mostly alone, gazing at their lap tops, disinterested in conversation or connection.
Real Change vendors, he found, offered a taste of the village life he missed.
Real Change vendors, he found, offered a taste of the village life he missed.
Conversations that bring people together. Strangers who are open to caring. Community that breaks down isolating and stigmatized notions of otherness, and helps us find hope and commonality in our shared experience.
When you purchase Real Change, while the cash is certainly appreciated, that $2 is not the main point. What our vendors value most is someone stopping to say, “I care about you,” through a smile, a joke or a conversation that recognizes the humanity between you.
You don’t really find that on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. While we are now “socially connected” 24/7, that can’t replace real eye contact, a handshake or the occasional hug.
No matter who we are or what our circumstances, we all need work, community and a sense of purpose to be happy and fulfilled. You, our readers, make that possible for our vendors.
No matter who we are or what our circumstances, we all need work, community and a sense of purpose to be happy and fulfilled. You, our readers, make that possible for our vendors.
So this is your week, and we thank you.
During Reader Appreciation Week, our vendors will be handing buttons and wristbands to readers as a means of saying “Thank You for Caring.”
Our hope is that these tokens of appreciation will be conversation starters with friends and acquaintances. An opportunity to talk about a vendor who brightens your day. A chance to promote quality grassroots media that brings you the stories that matter. A means of enlarging our community and generating support for our vendors.
We also hope that you will attend one of the two Open Houses we are holding at our 96 S. Main storefront from noon to 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 5, and Wednesday, May 9.
Real Change is housed in two floors at the corner of First and Main in Pioneer Square, and we’d love you to come by for a tour, a chat and to meet the Real Change team over some refreshments. There are lots of opportunities to become more involved in our community, and we’re inviting you in.
Finally, this is the last year that Seattle Foundation is holding GiveBIG, and we’d like to make it our most successful yet. Our generous friends at Wyncote Foundation NW are matching the first $50,000 in gifts received by midnight May 9.
Early giving is open, and you can make your donation online. Thank you for believing in Real Change.
You make it all happen.
Tim Harris is the Founding Director Real Change and has been active as a poor people’s organizer for more than two decades. Prior to moving to Seattle in 1994, Harris founded street newspaper Spare Change in Boston while working as Executive Director of Boston Jobs with Peace.
Wait, there's more. Check out the full May 2 - 8 issue.