The world truly is a small place, I saw that first hand this week. On Thursday afternoon I stopped by Laura Payne’s office to see what she was up to and if there was anything I could assist her with. As we sat there and talked about all the assignments she was working on the phone rings and it’s Bill Grulich. Bill Grulich is a film director from Lakewood, Ohio who wants to talk with her about the upcoming documentary he’s working on that includes Back Bay Mission in it. As you all may know I live in Lakewood, Ohio and knowing that Laura was working on a project with someone from my town excited me. After Laura hangs up the phone she shows me a documentary he has made called “Ain’t Done Yet” about homelessness in Cleveland, Ohio.
Laura wanted to see the kind of work he does so we go in the conference room to view it. As the documentary starts to play I start to notice all the landmarks of my hometown, but what really caught my attention was all the people I knew. Like my pastor speaking about homelessness, people I know from the neighborhood and I even saw clips of my own church. I never thought I would come all the way to Biloxi, Mississippi and hear about homelessness being addressed in my own town. Even being in Cleveland I still had no idea that this man existed and made a documentary about the same issue that Back Bay Mission addresses. At that moment I felt a sense of pride to be from Cleveland and be here in Biloxi learning all that I have this summer.
It made me see clearly that all of us are connected in some way form or fashion and you never know when your different worlds will cross paths. There were places that Bill Grulich visited in the documentary that I didn’t know existed that assisted the homeless. Not only did “Ain’t Done Yet” show me a different side of Cleveland, but also it made me want to see other resources Cleveland has to assist the community like how I got to see directly here in Biloxi. I can’t wait to go home and start the process of getting to know my community better and seeing what we’re doing to address all social issues and how far have we have come as a city.
