Monday, November 22, 2004
"A Gentle Giant" Finds Way Back, Now Helps Others
... he stares up at the Salvation Army shelter worker who asked him to leave. Perched above the room at a desk on a loading dock is 6-foot-5, 270-pound Haywood McRae, whose bright yellow sweat shirt, with a black stripe down each sleeve, seems only to emphasize his impressive size.
Polite but firm, McRae — a man whose boss calls him a gentle giant — repeats himself. "C'mon, sir, you know you can't stay here drunk like that. You know the rules."
...
This minimum-wage job, watching over a 52-bed shelter in the parking garage of the King County Administration Building four nights a week, is a first step back toward a productive life for McRae, a first step back from a tangle of lost jobs, lost hope and lost opportunities.
A Navy veteran of the first Persian Gulf War, McRae said his life was a wash of alcohol and crack cocaine from the time he left the service in 1992 until last summer, when he entered a program for veterans ...
"I'm clean and sober now, so it's time for me to reach back and see who else I can help," McRae said. "Then they'll reach back and help someone else. It's all about somebody reaching back to help someone else."
...
For McRae, home since August has been a metal-framed, lower-level bunk marked K-16, and a nearby narrow locker bearing the same designation. On top of the locker rests his small library of books, including his Life Application Study Bible, with 3-by-5 file cards of notes tucked inside, and Barron's Firefighter Exams, which he's studying with the hope of testing to apply for work as a Seattle firefighter.
He goes to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly.
...
At 9 p.m., a security guard opens a gate along Jefferson Street and a small crew begins the process of turning the loading-dock area into a bare-bones shelter: no food, no TV, no services — just a grid of 52 green foam mats arrayed on large canvas tarps on the concrete floor, and access to a restroom, past the watchful eyes of the security guard. ...
Each man, as he is checked in, receives a gray wool blanket to use for the night, and then finds his own way to an open mat.
...
... he stares up at the Salvation Army shelter worker who asked him to leave. Perched above the room at a desk on a loading dock is 6-foot-5, 270-pound Haywood McRae, whose bright yellow sweat shirt, with a black stripe down each sleeve, seems only to emphasize his impressive size.
Polite but firm, McRae — a man whose boss calls him a gentle giant — repeats himself. "C'mon, sir, you know you can't stay here drunk like that. You know the rules."
...
This minimum-wage job, watching over a 52-bed shelter in the parking garage of the King County Administration Building four nights a week, is a first step back toward a productive life for McRae, a first step back from a tangle of lost jobs, lost hope and lost opportunities.
A Navy veteran of the first Persian Gulf War, McRae said his life was a wash of alcohol and crack cocaine from the time he left the service in 1992 until last summer, when he entered a program for veterans ...
"I'm clean and sober now, so it's time for me to reach back and see who else I can help," McRae said. "Then they'll reach back and help someone else. It's all about somebody reaching back to help someone else."
...
For McRae, home since August has been a metal-framed, lower-level bunk marked K-16, and a nearby narrow locker bearing the same designation. On top of the locker rests his small library of books, including his Life Application Study Bible, with 3-by-5 file cards of notes tucked inside, and Barron's Firefighter Exams, which he's studying with the hope of testing to apply for work as a Seattle firefighter.
He goes to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings regularly.
...
At 9 p.m., a security guard opens a gate along Jefferson Street and a small crew begins the process of turning the loading-dock area into a bare-bones shelter: no food, no TV, no services — just a grid of 52 green foam mats arrayed on large canvas tarps on the concrete floor, and access to a restroom, past the watchful eyes of the security guard. ...
Each man, as he is checked in, receives a gray wool blanket to use for the night, and then finds his own way to an open mat.
...
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