November 1, 2015

Showering Love with Comments for a Cause

November 1st and it’s time to share Comments for a Cause on It’s Just Life. If you are new around these parts the deal is simple.

Each month I choose a new charity or cause.
For every comment made on any blog post during the month my husband and I donate 50 cents to that cause.
On the 1st of each month I post how much we will be donating to that cause and announce the cause for the new month.

During October I highlighted The Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. You can read that post by clicking here.
This organization does some pretty amazing and important things and I am thrilled to announce that Chris and I will be donating $173 to the foundation as a result of your comments. Way to go! Thanks for taking the time to stop by and share your thoughts with me in the comments.

Photo courtesy of Lava Mae

Now for the exciting news. Have you ever heard of radical hospitality? The organization that will receive our support this month through Comments for a Cause practices radical hospitality in an amazingly simple but genuine way. Lava Mae is a mobile shower service that started in the San Francisco area by Founder/CEO Doniece Sandoval. By providing mobile shower facilities to homeless folks this service reaches out into the community in ways that are tangible. Beyond that shower they also form relationships with the people who use their mobile services and treat them with the respect that they deserve. They provide much more than a shower. They want each person who steps on the bus to feel like a guest and the goal is to make each individual feel better when they leave. Their philosophy is 3 fold:

Everyone has the right to be clean.
Those experiencing homelessness can’t access jobs and housing or maintain health and wellbeing if they can’t get clean.
With hygiene comes dignity; with dignity, opportunity.

Lava Mae takes retired transportation busses and repurposes them into mobile showers. What a simple but amazing concept. I was drawn into the interview posted on their website with Doniece Sandoval and you can read it by clicking on this link and scrolling to the bottom of the page and click on FAQ to read the entire interview. To help you understand a bit about why this was started in the first place please read what Doniece Sandoval wrote:

What led you to starting Lava Mae? Where did the concept come from?

It’s impossible to live in San Francisco and not be impacted by homelessness. For years I’d wanted to help but didn’t have a clue (other than volunteering with existing organizations) how to do that. One day in May 2012, I passed a young woman sitting on the street. She was crying and saying over and over to herself that she’d never be clean. I knew her words had many layers but a light bulb went on in my head as I thought about how I might be able to help her get superficially clean. That night I began to research shower resources for the homeless in SF and was shocked by what I found (approximately 16 shower stalls for more than 7,000 people). The food truck craze was at its height and it occurred to me that if we could gourmet food on trucks and take it around, why not showers and toilets? I did some research about this and found out that about a dozen mostly small communities around the country – all led by faith-based groups – were doing this. I talked to all of them; they told me stories of transformation. That the homeless that used their mobile showers “felt human for the first time in a long time” or “were recovering their sense of dignity.” It’s amazing what a shower can do.

Photo courtesy of Lava Mae

I was thrilled to find this and know that it will be one of my favorite causes here on It’s Just Life. There are many ways that YOU can help.

Comment here on the blog on any post during November and you automatically have helped make a donation of 50 cents with each comment.
You can go to their website here and spend some time looking around educating yourself on what Lava Mae does.
You can also donate items that are needed from their list of needed items by clicking here to view what they are currently in need of.
You can share on Social media to help spread the word by clicking on any of the share buttons at the bottom of this post.

I hope you are as excited about this cause as I am. Make sure you follow Lava Mae on all of their social media outlets which are listed below.