There’s No Place Like Home…less Shelters

Inspired.

Not usually the term I’d use when describing the feeling after a work-related shoot (keep in mind I cover fashion and celebs for a living) but… for this first time since my days as a local news reporter covering things like death, war, disease, fires, fairs, and the like, I’ve actually been affected.

Now, don’t get me wrong…this story still involves a celebrity or two (they always do) – but this time, I’m gonna try to drop the sarcastic tone….at least a notch.

So here’s the deal. Maksim Chmer-I-cant-even-spell-his-last-name-ovskiy from Dancing With the Stars, along with actors Liam Hemsworth (former flame to Mile), Jayson Blair,  Donald Faison (yes, Turk from Scrubs) and gf Cacee Cobb (spokesperson for Soles4Souls) were the famous faces reppin’ Souls4Soles charity and the Creative Recreation brand at a homeless shoe drive at the LA Mission.  (Sidenote: I was at a Creative Rec party a few weeks earlier in Vegas. That event, however did not inspire me or bring me near tears. Conclusion: Creative Rec lives a balanced lifestyle of party and charity. Well done.)

Anyway. Homeless people affect me. They make me sad. They make me feel fortunate. They make me feel blessed, two-fold. One because I have a roof over my head and food and clothing and whatnot. And two, because I have my sanity. A lot of people don’t realize that many of the homeless out there actually have mental health issues. Whether it’s a split personality or something else, they’re affected in such a way that even if they wanted to be in a better place, circumstantially, they just cant. So when one homeless man named Ernest told me he was “blessed” after getting a pair of Creative Recreation shoes, I got super reflective, almost-teary-eyed (I say “almost” not because I’m heartless, but rather because I am equally concerned about my eyeliner.)

Anyway, enough of the “real” talk, I’ll save the emotions for like, Oprah or something. I just wanted to update the blog about this so that ten years from now, I remember that there were moments of “depth” when it came to my job.

PS Fun facts from the shoot? Turk aka Donald Faison started off the interview asking if he had boogers in his nose (this, sadly, didn’t make the cut into the edited piece.) Maksim C (no, I’m not gonna even try to spell his last name again) wears Creative Recs on the regular, and finds them to be fab. Cacee Cobb is legitimately really cool (many of you may know her from the days of Nick and Jessica as “NewlyWeds” – don’t judge her on her reality show past!) And the Creative Rec crew makes you want to quit your job and somehow figure out a way to work for them…or at least well, go out and buy a pair of their shoes.