Gary has sold newspapers ever since he was a kid. And like so many kids growing up in Chicago, he did whatever he could to help his family pay the bills.
"I grew up rough," he says. "I had to make some type of earnings because Mom and Dad couldn't do it, so I used to sell newspapers door to door."
In his late adolescence, Mom and Dad moved the family to Orlando, Fla., where a 22-year-old Gary took a job in the bottling plant of a well-known carbonated beverage company. After working in the plant for 11 years and doing "everything from pencil and paper to production," Gary was laid off.
Why? "Because everything went to plastic," he explains, "people lost their jobs." And any factory worker knows that so-called "cost-cutting measures" can mean the difference between having bread on the table or going hungry, having a roof over your head or being homeless.
"Instead of getting more education I found a company that was going to take care of me," Gary reflects pensively. "I wish I could put my uniform back on."
Upon arriving in Seattle, Gary picked up where he left off and began selling newspapers again. He sold the Seattle Times. He sold the P-I. And that made good money, until coin-operated vending boxes replaced single copy sales. Newsboys were out of a job.
90-second video interview with Gary, by Alex Becker, Real Change Intrn & Contributing Writer.
"It hasn't been easy," Gary says, "but we have to continue."
And he's doing just that.
"I stay in a shelter now and they take real good care of me," Gary says with a smile. "Things do change...[that's] why I'm selling Real Change."
And he hopes that his customers continue to buy the papers. "Not just for the benefit of me," he says, "but for the benefit of them, too."
You can find Gary selling Real Change downtown near Fifth and Pike, so be sure to give him your support. And when he asks how you're doing, he really means it.
"The people of Seattle have just been tremendous to me," he says.