The Basics
@creationlayer here. I thank you for the support of Brook. I wasn't expecting such amazing contributions. I am going to get Brook a laptop and spend a bit of time showing him Steemit.com but if it's phone calls or emails I'll try to support his stories. He wants to learn but he has not used computers much at all. I think it's important we set a high bar for helping people in these situations. We should demand transparency, pro-activeness and help managing money. I'm happy Brook is rational, and wants to save for the future after handling the basics. Since there was so much support, I decided to front money from my Bitcoin account to get started. I will start the process of moving funds, which I explained can take 7-10 days if we wants to do cash. I also re-explained Steem power and ultimately we'll need to assess the best way to handle that.
Original Thread: https://steemit.com/homeless/@brookdemar/i-m-homeless-but-not-forgotten
Since the image link failed in the original thread here's the image when I first met Brook yesterday morning.
I purchased 3 nights for Brook in a local decent but affordable hotel, so he could shower and get some rest.
I met up with him quite early in the morning. First we filled up the car he lives in with some gas.
I told him we'd head out and pick up some basics. As he got in the car he screamed, it was loud so I was quite confused. He explained his back pain is so bad lifting his leg that way is tough, and my car is small.
We headed over to the grocery store. He really didn't want too much, but I let him decide. He got some butter top bread, ham and bologna, dipping cheese because his wife likes that, a gallon of milk, some cheddar cheese and a roasted chicken. To him I think it was a feast.
We then went over to Old Navy. He really liked the Olympic Rings shirt, because he said he loved sports growing up. We had to speak with a retail worker to get his size. After about 5 minutes she appeared, and he said, "alright cool..." with a grin. He's a large guy, and we talked about a possible gym membership at least for regular showers. Old Navy didn't have his size in pants size so we went to target which is cheaper anyways.
We got to Target. They had his pants size, and we got him a belt, boxer briefs (he specifically said white but they only had mixed color :(), socks, a new pair of sneakers (champion, he said champions the best shoe), deodorant, a razer and shaving cream.
I wanted to take him over to a barber and get him a clean shave but he said it was hot and he could shave at the hotel.
We ended up at the same spot I met him yesterday. He decided to try on some of his new clothes. A fresh pair of underwear and socks, new shoes, which he said were cushy, his new slacks and belt, and the Olympic Ring shirt he was rather overly attached to.
I don't know if he was a top soccer player but I've contacted the college ;).
I hope to pick up a laptop for him and help further, to help him contribute directly.
If there is anyone in the Bay Area that wants to tutor Brook, help him with housing, dental work, or anything else please reach out to brookdemar@tuta.io.