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JAMIE EDMONDS
Hotdogs for the Homeless
"Feeding the Homeless One Dog at a Time"
By Sarah Henderson



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Every Thursday around dinnertime, you will find Jamie Edmonds serving hot dogs to homeless people on Meeting Street in downtown Charleston.

His organization, appropriately named Hotdogs for the Homeless, provides a hot dog dinner for local people in need twice a week. Jamie has been with the organization since September when the group started serving to the homeless once a week.

Since then, the organization has grown compiling more volunteers and more donations, and Hotdogs for the Homeless is now able to feed the area's homeless two nights per week.

Jamie says that working with the less fortunate helps him to have a better perspective on life. "These people are some of the most grateful you've ever met in your life," he says.

Seeing those people so grateful for the meal provided them not only motivates Jamie to come back every week, it also gives him an appreciation for many diverse groups of people and what they can offer to the world.

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Jamie Edmonds may be a hot dog on the water too!.
About Jamie Edmonds...
Hometown: Rock Hill, S.C. Major:Religious Studies Expected Graduation:Spring 2010


Current Volunteer Activities: Hotdogs for the Homeless, RA for George Street Apartments, founding member of Phi Gamma Delta.

What is Phi Gamma Delta? We are a new fraternity at the College. Our fraternity is largely service-based and we saw that there is a need for a fraternity more involved with the community.

What is the most important thing you want people to know about your volunteer work? I want people to know, most importantly, that it's not just about me, there are other organizations and people out there that do great things and deserve to be recognized.

For Hotdogs for the Homeless, how do you get your funding to buy food? We buy large amounts of hotdogs, buns, soda, and little cookies very cheap from Piggly Wiggly every week. It costs us about $80 a meal that we get through mostly donations, but most all of us have thrown in money out of our own pocket to get the people fed as well.

Does working in that part of town ever make you fearful? There's been once or twice that we get a little nervous with the situation. When the drug runners come around of course we get a little nervous. But, I never feel like anyone's going to steal my wallet. We help them, they protect us.

How to you view the act of volunteering? I actually get really mad when people are required to volunteer, it shouldn't be a requirement it should be something you seek out for yourself, to better yourself and because you want to do it. Volunteering is fun because you can volunteer as much as you want, there’s always need.

What are your plans after graduation? I would like to go into the Peace Corps, and eventually attend graduate school.
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