Tuesday, February 15th 2022, 6:19 pm
Every Sunday, at 11 a.m., Rick Swyden and his team of volunteers meet at an empty storefront near Hefner and May preparing Hotdogs for the Homeless.
At noon, the team makes their way to the Shell station at Reno & Classen to a crowd of about 100 people waiting for them.
This important weekly event almost didn’t come into existence.
“Some friends invited us to go down to San Antonio for New Year’s Eve, and at that time I really couldn’t afford to do that,” said Swyden.
That was nearly two decades ago, and soon after, Rick received an unexpected donation that helped him make the trip. He says the trip changed his life.
“It was there that I was walking to the River Center Mall on New Year’s Eve and saw this homeless man and I just stopped and talked to him,” said Swyden.
The conversation prompted Rick to feed him the closest thing available, a hotdog.
“When I came back home, I felt the need to do it again, and I bought 16 hotdogs. I had no idea what I was doing I didn’t know if we had 16 homeless, I just felt that I needed to do it,” said Swyden.
On a cold Sunday afternoon, Rick set out with his 16 hotdogs to feed the homeless.
“And I found out there was more than 16 homeless people for sure,” said Rick.
So, the next week Rick added an additional package of hotdogs,
“At this time, I really couldn’t afford to do this, even three packages. My wife had breast cancer, we had tremendous bills, I couldn’t afford to do what I was doing but I felt I needed to,” said Swyden.
Rick’s Neighbors soon noticed his actions and decided to help out.
“The following week when I got home from church, there were 88 hotdogs, 88 buns 88 bottles of water, 88 chips, my neighbors had all pitched in and bought what was on my porch,” said Swyden.
The neighbors returned to help package all the items and 19 years later Rick is still giving out hotdogs for the homeless.
“The hotdog is really an avenue to develop a relationship with the people that are living in our community, with our brothers and sisters,” said Aimee Majoue coordinator for Hotdogs for the Homeless.
“I treat the people out here like people. I don’t treat them differently because they’re homeless. I mean I joke with them, we make fun of each other, we laugh,” said Swyden.
In the 19 years the group has only missed about five Sundays all due to the weather, showing Rick’s commitment as well as his passion.
“You just treat someone like a human and it’s just amazing what happens from that,” said Swyden.
Anyone interested in volunteering or donating can reach them on the Facebook page or on their website.
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