His name is Hot Chocolate, but the ladies call him “Spilled Milk.” This is one of the many people I and nine other students met while in New York City for Midnight Run.
On Tuesday November 17, 2012 we arrived at Stewart Hall at 4:00 PM. Once there, we made hundreds of sandwiches and packed them in brown bags to give to the homeless. A homemade soup was brought and heated there as well. We then departed Malvern’s campus at around 6:15 PM and headed towards the Big Apple. We were pumped up by Mr. Legner’s extremely good choice of song on the way up. I am pretty sure I heard him singing KE$HA’s song “Die Young” while driving, which immediately put us in a great mood. We were ready to do our job.
Once in New York, we went to our first stop. We arrived there at around 9:00 PM, and there were some people waiting already. We exited the vans and some kids handed out food while others handed out pants or shirts and jackets and blankets. After people stopped coming to that particular spot, we packed up and were on our way to the next one. At this second stop, there had to be around twenty to thirty people running up to the vans when they arrived. We who were giving out the clothes had to work fast. Constantly people would be asking for different types of clothes so I would have to rummage through the piles of misplaced clothing to find what they needed. We ran out of many articles of clothing at this stop because of the amount of people begging for something that would keep them warm. Again after people stopped asking for clothes or food, we left that stop and headed along to the next one.
At the next few stops, not nearly as many people showed up. There were still some, but apparently the word got out that we were running low on good clothes so people did not come. That did not matter because we went to look for some people anyway. We travelled to Penn Station and that is where we met our man Hot Chocolate. He was walking through the station singing/rapping a song by Lil Jon. He became great friends with Mr. Legner after they sang together. It was quite hilarious.
We still had most of the food and some clothes left over so before we left NYC we stopped at the Bowery Mission at 1:30 AM. We gave them the rest in hopes that they will do much good with it. After about fifteen minutes, we got in the vans and left for Malvern. We arrived at Malvern at 4:00 AM and those who did not have parents with them slept in St. Rita’s.
These twelve hours were unbelievable. We met so many people who genuinely good people but in bad situations. I highly recommend signing up, but there are not many spots and I assure you they will fill up fast. The next Midnight Run is December 27th so talk to Mr. Legner and get yourself to New York City!
