Honoring Sally Segerson ~ Voice Of The Township
On Saturday, July 29th, the Wayne Township Trustee Office presented our first “Person of the Year Award to Sally Becker Segerson. If you don’t already know, Ms. Segerson is a community activist and advocate for the homeless. The following is information about her that originally appeared about two years ago and still applies today.
“When so many of us gather around tables of delicious food and drink, it may or may not occur to us that there are people right here in our own community who spend much of their time working just to getting enough to keep themselves fed from one day to the next. Many of those people not only are without food, but they are also unhoused as well.
Someone who does understand this is Sally Becker Segerson. As the founder and CEO of Fort Wayne’s Street Reach for the Homeless, Sally has, since 2012, been travelling the streets of Fort Wayne helping the homeless with needed clothing, equipment, and food.
The staff at the Wayne Township Trustee Office got to know Sally first through her relationship with our Clothing Emporium (a free clothing bank run by Patsy Brewer, executive secretary to Trustee Austin Knox). Back then Sally would periodically drop by in her van to donate and to pick up clothes for the folks she was meeting on the streets.
In the spring of 2021, Trustee Knox invited Forward Indiana, the company behind all of the colorful pantries that have popped up around town, to install one of their pantries in front of our office. The idea behind the Forward Indiana pantries (besides placing whimsical public art pieces around town) is that people can come and find food and paper products or they can contribute by leaving items in the pantry.
When Sally Segerson learned that Wayne Township was hosting one of these pantries, she became one of its regular contributors. Because we are well-known as a place to come when people are in need, Sally made our pantry a kind of hub and started coming almost daily to help stock it up.”
These days, and especially on Mondays, people will line up in our parking lot when Ms Sally is expected with a van full of basic necessities, and sometimes treats as well, for people, usually houseless, always in need, who show up at our pantry.
If you ever want to follow Sally you can visit her Facebook page at facebook.com/search/top?q=sally%20becker%20segerson. She writes some great stories that she gathers from the streets as she reaches out to help her fellow humans.
It really is heartwarming to know there are people like Sally who are out there caring for those who need help with the basics. Thank you!!
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