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I don't know whether you've seen or heard about the TV show called “Oprah's Big Give,” but I have, and it's inspired me to do “Buffalo's Big Give.” Basically, Oprah's show involves ordinary people finding people who need help, and then finding ways to help them out. I know a lady named Anita Jones-Williams, a grandmother living in the impoverished inner-city of Buffalo, New York, whom I met a while back through a mutual friend. Anita inspires me because she finds ways to do much with little, and she helps out thousands of people each year.
Twenty years ago, Anita was sitting in Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, noticing how her neighborhood didn't have anything good happening in it-- it was full of drugs and despair, single mothers with little kids who had no safe, clean place to play, and an overwhelming sense of poverty and hopelessness. So Anita started “Takin' It To The Streets,” a “soul-saving crusade rally.” I don't know if you've been to Buffalo's East Side, but I have, and it looks like war-torn “Beirut” with boarded up houses, abandoned businesses, litter, graffiti, weeds, potholes, and everything else that goes along with extreme poverty. If you visited, you would ask, “Is this really America? I can't believe an American city could look like this.” Yes, it's that bad. But, there is hope, and Takin' It To The Streets is one weekend a year in August when people from the neighborhood and beyond gather together in the park where Anita and her group of volunteers figure out a way to provide non-perishable food giveaways, back-to-school clothing and school supplies for kids and teens, a job fair, health screenings, and much, much more, all FREE to those who need it.
Of course, the needs on Buffalo's impoverished East Side are great-- great enough, that Buffalo's Big Give needs your help. Do you or someone you know have the ability to donate any of the following to Takin' It To The Streets:
1- school supplies for kids in elementary, middle and high schools, like crayons, pencils, pens, notebooks, folders, backpacks, etc. in mass quantities
2- back-to-school clothing for kids, like shirts, pants, sneakers, shoes in mass quantities
3- non-perishable food to giveaway in bulk quantities
4-3,000 Bibles
5- Christian/Gospel music CDs to giveaway; devices to play the music to giveaway
6- computers and computer supplies to giveaway
7- bicycles, rollerblades, or cars to giveaway
8- printing services/help with the souvenir journal (design, ads, paper, printing, etc.)
9- if you're a recording artist, can you come to the event on your own, bring your needed equipment, and donate your time/performance
10- any other items/supplies you think would benefit people, like baby strollers/supplies, etc.
If you can help with Buffalo's Big Give, and are able to donate to Takin' It To The Streets, please contact me, Mark Weber, via email at
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Since I will be deluged with offers from wonderful people both locally and (inter)nationally, please be patient as a response may take a week or more.
FYI: Oprah's producers have been contacted about Buffalo's Big Give. It's my hope, whether or not it gets covered on her show, that this inspires you to either 1- give to Takin' It To The Streets or 2- organize your own city's Big Give.
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