Picture walking into a room.
Your eyes scan, looking for a good place, a familiar face, you wonder if your friends are there.
Then suddenly you hear your name. You turn your head. Table Three. Recognition. Your face lights up, you smile, your shoulders drop a little and relax, you let out a sigh. Hassan gives you coffee. He makes it sweet and you join your pal. The conversation picks up where you left off.
Safe.
Those involved with the Three Links Foundation directly or indirectly — from one of the 100+ volunteers to a donor, from a Board member to a musician, from a Food Bank worker to a FoodStash driver, all are committed to building our community and creating a space conducive to restoring the value of the dignity and worth that every human being is entitled to by virtue of being human, regardless of their past or present circumstances. Without judgement. Everyone deserves that. It’s in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
When our guests walk into the Hall we rent for a Sunday breakfast service they are greeted with a smile and made to feel they belong. It is a period of respite and repose for those who experience hardship on a daily basis.
Our volunteers and donors work toward building community and rebuilding dignity. Donating items of clothing and personal hygiene or care items is a very actionable way of being more compassionate towards our fellow humans. This is a time when we ourselves perhaps are being pulled by political uncertainty, climate chaos, and feelings of helplessness in the face of it all. Deep down our troubles are all the same.
Author of the famous How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie says “A person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in the world”. It is not only good for business, it’s good for the soul. By calling someone their right name you are acknowledging someone’s identity, their individuality, but most fundamentally, you are acknowledging their humanity. There is the creation of relationship when a name ceases to be the blanket epithet of “Homeless”. Being on the street is dangerous and depersonalizing. Folks get caught in the undertow of that sea and it is difficult to come up for air.
But Sunday Breakfast at Three Links is a place where everyone feels safe and seen as the individual drop of water that they are.Thankfully, once a week, our guests can breathe more easily, make social connections, and feel safe and recognized. They take a break from all the worries. When you get to know someone’s name, you realize everyone is a precious drop.
“Stanley”
“Sadie”
“Mohamed”
“Michelle”
“Pink” and “Wayne”
When you call someone by their name, their face lights up.
Not only that, but their brains light up – their middle frontal cortex, to be more specific. That region of our brains is responsible for attention control, memory, decision making, planning, and other indispensable skills for making one’s way in the world today. It takes everything we’ve got.
On any given Sunday, you can walk into a Three Links Breakfast, look around, your eyes can scan the room, and a dozen faces will look up and smile. Everyone in that room deserves to be loved and take a break from all their worries.
“I go to other places, you know, and like, it’s okay, but you guys, you guys always remember my name.” Make a resolution in 2025 to be more kind to those whose circumstances are precarious. Then join us however you can. We’ll say what we say to everyone: we’re glad you’re here.
Let’s be good to each other. Happy New Year! And, by the way, what’s your name?
– Annie Lefebvre