The Original

Photo of papers coming out of a press

streetsensemedia.org

(I wrote this on Jan. 24, the second anniversary of my mother’s ascent to glory.

I love you, Mom!)

I am the original, the only, Reginald Charles Denny, born to Amelia Ann and Joseph Edward Denny. I have experienced homelessness multiple times.

My life as a Street Sense Media vendor has been an invigorating, intoxicating, exasperating experience in which I have learned many life lessons. I purchase and sell the paper because those actions help me buy items I need for daily living, e.g., food, clothing, personal hygiene products, and transportation. Street Sense has many positive aspects attached to it. The organization provides many beneficial services.

Being a vendor offers me the opportunity to earn income and to be an independent contractor with the ability and capability to write my own paycheck. Street Sense also enables to participate in our Writers Group, Photography Group, Theater Group, and Knitting Group. They all strengthen my confidence, my self-esteem, and my creative skills.

Distributing and buying Street Sense papers puts me in a great position to meet all sorts of people, any of whom may at some point be the bridge between me and my next success. I’ve heard that “the thing that stands between you your next ‘ascent to success’ is a PERSON.” This is definitely why buying the paper from vendors is so advantageous for us.

I am grateful and proud Street Sense enables us to spread awareness about the effects of poverty and homelessness in our neighborhoods. But the paper is also an effective method for communicating and highlighting the successes of those who have transcended these conditions.

I truly thank God for this vehicle and its vendors and staff who definitely aid and assist us in obtaining another level of living beyond and despite our circumstances.


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