2013 FREE Clothes Give-Away

Attached you will find our letter to Freddie Kaykdahzinne, Tribal Administrator for the Mescalero Apache Tribe, Mescalero, New Mexico for our 2013 -- FREE clothes give-away. We greatly appreciate this opportunity to help the needy of our Native American heritage.

Please share this with your friends. We're always looking for places, reservations, tribes, and individuals to contact with the goal of hopefully helping others.

IF YOU CAN DIRECT US TO PEOPLE, RESERVATIONS, TRIBES OR ORGANIZATIONS THAT WE CAN CONTACT -- PLEASE DO!

2012 Clothes Give-A-Way

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.

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.

Veteran's Widow

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.

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

2012 Clothes Give-A-Way

Finally, after four efforts to 4 different tribes/reservations we've decided to go back to Ponca City, OK. We went there last year and have gone back 2-3 times, this year, to help restock their Clothes Closet.

Our goal has been to go to different tribes/reservations yearly, but that hasn't worked out so we called Maxine Thompson, XI Part C - Director for the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, again. Thankfully she was very happy with us wanting to come back there. 

Carolene Poole, Maxine Thompson, Judy Madden

She told us, "the ones who have turned you down don't know what they're missing."

We load and leave December 5th, unload and set up the 6th and 7th, GIVE-A-WAY Saturday, December 8th. 

It's always exciting to meet new people, interact with them, watch them pick out clothes and toys, have our drawing for a Veteran and drawings for very unique items.

Especially the children as they check out the clothes and toys.

We're always looking for tribes and or reservations to take our FREE cloths, toys, books and other things we can get for the benefit of others.

John and Judy Madden

Kenneth and Carolene Poole

Comanche Nation

May 6th was a great day for 4Directions. We were in Lawton, OK at the Comanche Tribal Complex for our annual 5th clothes to rez drive. The doors opened around 9 AM and went till 2 PM. We have no idea how many people showed up. Seniors, families, lots of little ones, single parents and people from several tribes including Comanche, Apache and Kiowa.

We had near twenty tables set up with clothes from toddler, youth, young girls and boys, junior and senior high boys and girls, men and women from sizes s to 2XL, coats, suits, toys, household goods, soap, shampoo, lotion, desk, jewelry, books, hula hoops, shoes and a headboard for a bed.











We want to thank Will Owens, Comanche Tribal Administrator, for all his help and encouragement. He was helped us in so many ways we can never thank him enough.

Tribal Chairman came by and thanked us. It's truly our mission, pleasure and goal to help as many people from as many Tribes as possible. It's also a gift to get to meet so many wonderful people.

So many people benefit from the items we're able to get donated from churches, garage sales, individuals and,purchased at a discount. Presently we do not recieve any financial support from anyone or any organization.







4Directions consist of Kenneth (KP) and Carolene Poole, my lovely wife Judy and myself. We are in the process of applying for a
501 c 3 so we can expand our annual drive.

The for of us all have Cherokee heritage, attend and dance at Pow Wows and when possible present programs on our heritage.

It's a honor for us to do this and we want to expand it to include college scholarships some day.

Our ancestors helped each other and provided what they had for the good of everyone. That has been a major force in our desire to help our brother and sister Native Americans.

We came in contact with a orphan home and made sure all the girls received dolls (with five sets of custom made clothes by Carolene Poole). All the boys got toy trucks. Moments like that fill our hearts with so much happiness.

Everything we had left over, we gave to the Women's shelter.

We look forward to our next give-away, the wonderful people we'll meet, especially the children and the smiles on their faces.

Welcome to Four Directions

On an annual basis, before Christmas, our group take clothes we've collected from donations, bought (with the help of generous companies) at great discounts; including toys; electronics; household goods; and or anything that we can get that might be of benefit to Native Americans living on reservations.

To give you an idea this is where we've gone so far and where we're working towards for this year.

First year: Pine Ridge Reservation, Lakota, South Dakota.
Second year: Cache, Oklahoma, Comanche tribe
Third year: Mescalero, New Mexico-Mescalero Apache Reservation
Fourth year: Ojo Encino, New Mexico-Navajo tribe
Next: Cherokee tribe in Oklahoma

So who is we?

We are: Kenneth and Carolene Poole, my wife Judy and myself (John Madden) all of us are of Cherokee heritage.
Our goal is to find those on the reservations who have the greatest need.

We fund everything ourselves, and if we get any financial help, 100% goes to purchasing clothes, toys soap, lotion and books. We are going to file for a 501c so we can broaden our outreach.

John Madden