Spreading Love and Warmth With the Bed & Bread Club®
Lou and Linda Bennett, longtime supporters of the Bed & Bread Club® Radiothon, visited the Harbor Light Center in Detroit this week with a crate of over 100 hand-knitted hats, gloves, and mittens to be given from the Bed & Bread trucks that circulate through the city’s poorest neighborhoods every day of the year. After the couple visited the Harbor Light Center for the first time in early 2021 and learned more about the full reach of The Salvation Army’s programs in Detroit, Linda and her friend, Nancy Brooks, sprang into action, knitting items for children and adults.
“I remember saying to Lou as I was knitting the first few mittens, ‘There has got to be a need out there.’ We found the awareness and outreach we were looking for through the Bed & Bread program, and we know that these items will go where they're supposed to,” says Linda, a retired nurse. “Nancy is always knitting, just like me – so I told her that I would take as many hats as she could give me while I worked on the gloves and mittens.”
No strangers to mission work, the couple have traveled the country and the world serving people in need over the last several decades. In their retirement, the two Michigan natives have turned their focus to Detroit, and it could not have happened at a better time, with the needs of the underserved becoming even more dire with COVID-19.
“We have lived and worked in the city, and we know the need here,” says Lou, former operator engineer. “I see people sleeping on heating grates on winter nights, and it makes us want to help, especially during this time. Since we have the resources to do just that, we see it as our responsibility from God to use our blessings in a loving way.”
This sense of responsibility has led Lou and Linda to support the program financially as well. Additionally, Linda and Nancy are planning on delivering another pack of knit items before the end of the year.
“When I see a child suffering, I can’t tell you how that breaks my heart,” says Nancy. “God tells us to be His hands and feet, and my hands are going to do something.”
From left: Nancy Brooks, Linda Bennett, Jamie Winkler, Executive Director of the Detroit Harbor Light Center, and Lou Bennett.
We are so thankful to partner with such loving, kind people who want to make a difference. Join our friends in their support of the Bed & Bread program by donating today and tuning in to the 35th Annual Bed & Bread Club Radiothon.