BUFFALO, N.Y. — Whoever said you don’t know someone until you walk in their shoes probably didn’t think they’d take it as literally as the Johns family.
Alex Johns and his brother Nate are carrying on a tradition started 25 years ago by their father Eric of spending this Thanksgiving week on the streets of Buffalo with the homeless.
But this year, for the first time, they’re doing so without their father.
“Growing up, I remember 9, 8 years old, telling my friends my dad's going homeless for the week, and they thought I was crazy,” Alex said.
The brothers are spending the next five days at soup kitchens, bus stations, parks, and other places in the downtown area where the homeless live. They also spend the night outside.
The two said they feel this unconventional approach is the only way for them to truly understand what some are going through. But they still don’t feel they have a full grasp on what walking in their shoes is truly like.
“We're only out here for a week, and we know it's only a week, like in my mind, I know I'm gonna go back home at the end of the week,” Nate said.
That’s what brought a group of volunteers to a warehouse Monday night where Alex, Nate, and a few dozen volunteers are trying to help those who do understand what it’s like. They spent the evening putting together food and toy bags for 4,000 families this holiday season through the Buffalo Dream Center’s Boxes of Love program.
“We kind of realized that Christmas Day for those children was just another day,” Alex said.
Whoever said you don’t know someone until you walk in their shoes may never have thought anyone actually would.
But they also probably didn’t know the Johns family.
“It's a privilege to be able to carry on almost this legendary story, this legendary thing that happens in Buffalo,” Alex said.
To volunteer, go to buffalodreamcenter.org.