After being turned down by four (4) tribes, we decided to go back to Ponca City, Oklahoma for our annual
FREE Clothes-Give-A-Way.
It remains hard for us to totally understand what part of
FREE is not or can not be understood.
As it turned out we learned people at the Ponca Tribe had been praying that we wouldn't find another place to go and would return to them. Talk about having direct contact with God, they certainly have it.
People are constantly asking us "Why do you do this?"
Here are some reasons.
** A set of grandparents came in with their five grandchildren they were raising. Their daughter had left her children with them and gone. The grandparents were barely making it themselves, still they've stepped up and are raising their grandchildren.
After getting clothes for their grandchildren we noticed he was in the corner of the building, sitting down, and doing something. Our curiosity got the best of us and when he left we went over and found these.
He was ashamed to ask for help. He found a place out of the way to try on some shoes, for himself, and then leave his extremely worn out shoes.
We had shoes and there were NONE left!
We had shoes for all ages, men, women, youth, children and babies.
** A gentleman walked up to my wife, Judy, and asked her "Why do you do this?"
She told him we started this years ago (2013 will be our seventh year), as we our heritage is Native American and we wanted to help all we can. We'd rather give to our heritage and the needy than give to countries and people who not only don't like us, our religious beliefs, and would rather kill us.
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2 Quick notes:
1: The four of us (Kenneth and Carolene Poole, Judy and I, John Madden)-hence 4DirectionsInc as who we are: all have Cherokee heritage, but due to our ages and how our ancestors where treated, they didn't acknowledge their heritage thereby making it nearly impossible for us to trace ours.
2: Marc Wilson is on our Board of Directors and helps us in so many ways. He's also helps with the Kwahadi Dancers (Kwahadi.com) as do I, dances at Pow Wows as we all do, is a brother veteran, a successful businessman and a member of the Comanche Little Ponies.
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The gentleman told Judy he'd been to numerous of things where clothes are given to them, but they're always dirty, in plastic bags, smell, and not wearable. That he had looked at everything we had brought and none of it was dirty, it was all laid out to see, didn't smell and was certainly wearable.
Judy told him we have a rule "if we wouldn't wear it we don't bring it to give away."
With that he thanked her and went about his way.
** Another set of grandparents came in and talked to our wonderful Ponca friend, Maxine Thompson "+", Title XI Part C Director for the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma.
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| Maxine and her beautiful daughter |
They had grandchildren and asked if they could get clothes for the children? She told him yes and helped them find the clothes for the grandchildren. He was embarrassed to have to ask for help.
Maxine not only helped him find clothes for the grandchildren, but convinced both grandparents to look for and get clothes for themselves.
** Maxine told us about numerous people who came in, got clothes themselves, family and friends; gifts for Christmas; clothes to wear when applying for jobs; and a young lady who was able to find nice clothes that she could wear to her new job at a bank.
We had numerous Christmas trees this time for our lottery.
Lottery: we give everyone a ticket and keep it's matching number, then we draw the matching numbers and who ever has the joining ticket can pick out what ever they want from Christmas trees, children's toys, unique clothing items, household items, one of a kind dolls with hand made clothes by (Carolene Poole "+"), bicycles, and sporting items.
And a special drawing for Veterans, and or veterans spouses, for a quilt.
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| Veteran's Widow |
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| A North Face brand new 3XL coat |
In addition this year we were gifted to have Santa and Mrs Claus with us. They visited with lots of children, gave out gifts and took pictures with them.
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| Santa and Mrs Claus |
One of the great things, concerning the photos, was how many parents wanted to meet, talk to, and get their photos taken with their children and Santa.
All it all it was a great day. We, 4DirectionsInc, were able to make Christmas a little better for lots of people, children got to see Santa, grandparents were able to take care of their grandchildren, people from many tribes were helped, and God had helped us to help others.
As of our sixth year we've helped over 6,500 people from 50 different tribes.
We have submitted all the paper work to the IRS to become and 501-c-3 Non-profit so we can obtain contributions and grants in order to grow, so as to help even more people and tribes.
We would appreciate you sharing our blog, story, mission with your friends, family, and anyone on you email lists.
John and Judy Madden
Kenneth and Carolene Poole
We had Santa and Mrs Claus with us and took photos of all who wanted in his lap. One graceful elder told us as she sat in Santa's lap, "I haven't sat in Santa's lap in eighty years." She was laughing as was everyone else. 
