Top Dog

Hot Dogs For The Homeless Ministry Celebrates Three Years Of Caring For Street People
Father Rex Arnold speaks to a homeless woman who suffers from lung cancer.  

By Ray Dyer
The Sooner Catholic

OKLAHOMA CITY — Little miracles seem to follow Rick Swyden around.

He had no idea three years ago when he created Hot Dogs For the Homeless where his efforts would lead. He only knew something was telling him to feed the homeless who live on the streets in the downtown area. That was 43,000 hot dogs ago.

Along the way Swyden and his wife, Susan, have opened their home to the different people who show up every Sunday morning. They come because they have  a desire to help someone less fortunate than themselves.

“I think God designed people to want to help other people,” Swyden said. That’s why he said he never worries about having enough volunteers to help pack and deliver the hot dog lunches that now number close to 300 every Sunday. And he never worries about where the hot dogs, the chips, cookies or the bottled water will come from. Somehow, someway it all works out.
                                                                                                      
“I was standing in line at Sam’s         Swyden, Sister Barbara Joseph and Father Rex Arnold pray with and  checking out and explaining to               for their friends during a recent hot dog run.  
this lady why I had all this stuff,” Swyden said. “A woman behind me overheard the conversation and she said her son had just closed his hot dog stand that he had in the mall. He didn’t know what he was going to do with all the frozen hot dogs he had stored. He donated them to us and that lasted us for several months.”

A number of businesses have contributed over the years. One donor sends money several times a year. Little miracles pop up over and over again, like the teen who phoned recently to say he had come into some money and he wanted to send $100 to Hotdogs for the Homeless.

The Swydens are members of  Saint Joseph’s Old Cathedral. While the majority of volunteers are Catholic, he said the ministry has received support from many different denominations scattered throughout Oklahoma.  A Lutheran youth group discussing homelessness in America came one Sunday and helped deliver the sack lunches. A group of students known as the “Mission Possible Girls” have also gotten involved, as have many others.

On this Sunday, Chris Engle from Saint John the Baptist in Edmond is lending a hand. He brought along his two young children, Anne Marie and Joseph who have volunteered so often they know many of the homeless by name. Anne Marie has no hesitation about walking up to the legless man known as “Too Tall” and handing him his hot dog sack.  Helping with Hot Dogs at first was part of Jesse Paxton’s plan to complete the community service requirements at McGuinness High School. But that obligation was fulfilled many hours ago. Now Paxton, an Irish senior, helps out because “something cool happens almost every Sunday.”

Others who help often are Father Rex Arnold and Sister Barbara Joseph Foley,  CST. Sister Barbara Joseph will soon open her pantry for the homeless in the downtown area. The seeds for that ministry were planted after her first experience with Hot Dogs For the Homeless.

While volunteers tend to come and go, probably 300 different people have helped at least once, Swyden knows he can always count on his friend and co-worker Mike Velte who hasn’t missed a Sunday since the first hot dog was pulled from the pot of boiling water. “This is my kind of church,” said Velte who assists Swyden in his Lifetime Video Productions business. Swyden also knows without the love and patience of his wife, none of this would be possible.

Swyden said it’s obvious to him the Holy Spirit is at work in all of this. He said there is no other way to explain, as Paxton said, “the cool things” that have happened throughout the past three years.

Robert is a good example. When the Hot Dogs for the Homeless crew first met Robert he was in a drunken stooper, living out of his car and often in a very unpleasant mood. Even so, Swyden, Sister Barbara Joseph and the others kept coming back week after week, never passing judgment, simply showing and telling Robert that he was important to them.  

“I think what got to Robert was when we made him a birthday cake,” Swyden said.  “I think that meant so much to him,” Sister Barbara Joseph chimed in. “He didn’t get the cake, someone else got to it first, but he got the card.”

Robert began attending AA meetings and remained sober for several months. He stumbled a few months later, but was able to regain his sobriety and recently celebrated his one year anniversary.  

When Swyden pulled his SUV into the vacant lot across from the City Shelter where each week the Hot Dogs for the Homeless concludes it’s delivery, it was Robert who quieted the more than 100 people and led them in prayer as they waited for their sack lunch.

 It’s like that every week. Little miracles.

To learn more about Hot Dogs for the Homeless go to www.hotdogsforthehomeless.com

A legless man nicknamed "Too Tall" accepts a sack of food from Anne Marie Engle. Too Tall lives in a tent in an area of Oklahoma City known as "the jungle."