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Homeless Women Calendar
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Wall calendars are usually adorned with scenic vistas, bulked-up bodybuilders or gorgeous supermodels. As Kim Riemland reports, a certain group in Seattle has created its own calendar, full of women who often go unnoticed. |
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SCRIPT:
These are the images that aren’t comfortable to look at—people living on the streets, sleeping in the parks. It’s easier to walk right on past. But homeless women in Seattle want you to take a good, close look at whom you’re trying not to see.
Mary / Homeless: “Well, it will show the public what we are and what we look like.”
Women who’ve experienced homelessness have posed for a 2004 calendar that captures their pictures …
Mary: “Being homeless is no fun.”
… and their stories of struggle and survival.
Joyce / Homeless: “I’ve battled with depression by being homeless. It’s no picnic. And society really kicks us.”
Joyce says being in the calendar makes her both proud and ashamed. But she likes the calendar’s title: “Beauty and Strength.”
Joyce: “I want the strength—my strength—to come through.”
The calendar is designed to spread compassion and understanding.
Hester / Homeless: “I am ‘Miss January.’ (Giggle) That’s me.”
Hester says homeless women often feel invisible.
Hester: “And that’s a terrible way to feel about your life. No matter what you are in, you are somebody.”
The calendar is a project of “Mary’s Place”—a church and drop-in center for homeless and formerly homeless women that’s located in the basement of First United Methodist Church in downtown Seattle.
The women here hope those who take the time to see them—see their beauty and their strength—won’t find it so easy to look the other way.
I’m Kim Riemland reporting.
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For each woman featured in the calendar, there are 100 more who visit “Mary’s Place” each year. Money raised through calendar sales will benefit “Mary’s Place.”