Street Roots editorial
Jim and Street Roots’ Vendor Coordinator Cole Merkel started
around the same time. Jim was a Street Roots vendor. Cole was a Jesuit
Volunteer a year out of college and looking to make a difference in the world.
For more than a year, Cole watched Jim struggle to get
sober. Jim slept in the office doorway and spent rainy afternoons in the Street
Roots office making calls to treatment centers.
Jim went to meetings and made honest attempts to find
community and remain sober. The more time they spent together, the more Cole
began to learn about his life. Jim had experienced years of substance abuse and
has a traumatic brain injury that still effects him today.
When Jim got into an apartment last summer, the Street Roots
staff couldn’t have been happier for him. He’d come so far. He was taking
active steps to remain sober and had a roof over his head for the first time in
five years.
A few weeks ago, after Jim’s father died, Cole says the two
took a walk through Old Town. Jim had a bottle of vodka in his bag and was
having a hard time not drinking it.
“Having stopped drinking when I started at Street Roots in
solidarity with so many of the vendors who struggle with addiction, I told Jim
about the time last summer I’d poured an entire bottle of grain alcohol down my
kitchen sink that one of my housemates had left behind,” says Cole. “It was one
of the most liberating experiences I have ever had.”
Without a second thought, Jim pulled the bottle out of his
backpack and dumped it into the trash can. The smell of cheap vodka emanated.
Jim wiped his hands together and put them in the air as if fully resigning his
past to make room for the present. He went straight to an AA meeting, and as
soon as he got back to his apartment called the Street Roots office to let Cole know he was OK.
Jim’s story is not unique.
“In the few years I’ve been at Street Roots as the vendor
coordinator, I’ve befriended hundreds of vendors and witnessed countless
moments of victory and failure,” says Cole. “The thing that places Street Roots
in such a unique position to serve is that we are a small and dedicated crew
working to make a tangible difference in this world. Some days, that work is as
vast as facilitating a social media campaign to save $2 million in services
from the city’s chopping block. Other days, it is as simple and profound as
having a supportive conversation with someone that encourages him not to take
that next drink.”
While Jim is now housed and sober, there are countless other
vendors struggling with the harsh realities of urban poverty who are using
Street Roots to empower themselves toward something better.
At Street Roots, we’re ready for anything, and we are in it
for the long haul. That’s precisely why we need you now more than ever. Find
out ways to give on the back page and we appreciate your love and support.
This article appears in 2013-04-12.