Relieve ‘hurt,’ give toys before holidays

Here’s a reason to start thinking about Christmas in October.

Ed Shada, a Bellevue University employee, is preparing to launch a Christmas Eve open house for homeless families and children and older homeless youths at Omaha’s Civic Auditorium.

Shada expects to draw 500 to 1,000 people to a first-ever event that, like past homeless one-stop-shop days he’s organized, will include services like health care and housing.

What he really needs are new toys for infants through 16-year-olds and new or gently used clothes, coats, boots and other items for all family members.

“I’m hurting,” said Shada, who manages business development for the university’s strategic initiatives. He volunteers to bring services to homeless people. “I need 500 presents for these kids. I need clothing.”

Shada is collecting unwrapped gifts and clothes at his office at Bellevue University’s Lakeside Center, 16820 Frances St., during weekday business hours.

He also is seeking volunteers to serve at the event, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dec. 24. Homeless families and children will be the focus of the morning; older homeless youths ages 18 to 21 will be the focus of the afternoon.

Shada is an Omaha native whose résumé has carried him to Chicago and San Francisco for various finance or dot-com jobs. He returned to Omaha to raise his son, now a college freshman, and has for a couple years been serving the homeless.

Shada said he had an awakening while on a business trip to Denver, where he saw a homeless man trying to fix a bike. He returned to Omaha, where he learned about a homeless man dying outdoors. The man’s Nebraska family long had lost touch.

So he launched Project Homeless Connect Omaha in 2008. The event, held twice so far with help from Creighton University, brings together volunteers and the homeless to provide needed services in one spot.

The project’s Web site says it has helped more than 800 people find housing and services, including health care, dentistry (almost 90 sets of dentures have been distributed) and haircuts.

Shada currently is trying to line up services for families and recruit a high-profile Santa Claus.

“If we can take the Civic Auditorium and throw a Christmas tree in there and have Santa Claus, and maybe have some cookies and milk, we can make it almost like being at home,” he said.

Contact the writer:

444-1136, erin.grace@owh.com