'Fallen Angel' project reflected spirit of season
The problem with singling out any particular humanitarian effort, especially around here, is that it leaves out so many others. One of the things that makes this time of year special is the number and scope of good things people endeavor to do for one another.
That said, the "Fallen Angel" project stands out not just for the help it provided for some of the Columbus area's homeless people, but also for the individuals, organizations and faith communities that came together to make the project so much bigger than it was originally envisioned.
Sky Fraker, who has long been involved in food programs for the homeless, came up with a plan this year to put together some survival packs for people who would be on the streets in what is supposed to be the most caring and charitable of all seasons. Her idea of distributing about 15 backpacks of nonperishable food, personal hygiene items, blankets, gloves and the like was a thoughtful one; it grew substantially when she shared the idea with Neil Richardson of SafeHouse, the homeless resource organization operated under the aegis of Chattahoochee Valley Jail Ministries.
An anonymous donor provided funding. Volunteers -- more than 50 of them, Fraker said -- stepped forward to help buy, assemble and distribute the backpacks, which were given out at Rose Hill United Methodist Church.
"This shows people in this community care," said one grateful recipient. "People still care and don't look down on the homeless."
The "Fallen Angel" project was, and is, an especially appropriate Christmas gesture for some of our fellow beings most in need of one. As you have done unto the least of these ...
The 'Clown Prince'
Everybody who ever saw them -- more than likely on TV unless you were really lucky -- remembers his or her first exposure to the Harlem Globetrotters. If you are above a certain age, the star of the show was a joyful, gifted performer named Meadowlark Lemon, who died Sunday at 83.
No less an all-time great than the late Wilt Chamberlain called Lemon "the most sensational, awesome, incredible basketball player I've ever seen People would say it would be Dr. J or even (Michael) Jordan. For me it would be Meadowlark Lemon."
Lemon spent an incredible 24 years with the Globetrotters, for most of that time playing more than 300 games a year. But it was his comic talent as much as his athletic talent -- and both were remarkable -- that endeared him to fans.
Meadowlark Lemon perfected his own way of making sports fun, decades before pro athletes and their media apologists started defining "fun" as various forms of chest-beating.
"My destiny was to make people happy," Lemon said in 2003. He could hardly have done it better.
This story was originally published December 29, 2015 at 3:59 PM with the headline "'Fallen Angel' project reflected spirit of season."