This posting falls under the heading of "In the true spirit of the holidays..." Last week five of the men served by the Uptown Shelter gave their time, energy, and elbow grease to help others they may never meet. Local agencies, community leaders, and others have worked hard over the past few weeks to raise the money needed to open Hall House for six months to homeless families with children in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system. As the last of the funds were being sought, work began on cleaning up the facility that would become home to those families. A request for labor was sent out, asking people to donate a couple of hours to help clean and paint. Uptown Shelter's Facilities Director, William Hicks, assembled a volunteer team made up entirely of residents at the Uptown Shelter and they spent the afternoon scrubbing whatever they found in need of scrubbing. My holiday heroes this year are Gary, Jacob, Nathaniel, Paul, and Tim (not to mention William). Thanks guys!