I was addicted to my phone, just like many of you reading this article probably are. My specific vice was Instagram Reels. Thankfully, I promised myself I would never download a new social media app, so I won’t do TickTock. To quit, I set daily limitations for Instagram during screen time to control my usage, but those didn’t always work. It’s too easy to click “Extra 15 Minutes” and get sucked into the dopamine dump which so many social sites represent. The screen time limitations helped me get my daily usage down to a reasonable 30 minutes a day on average. Hiding the app from my home screen helped me get down to 15 minutes a day, and hopefully, I will be able to escape the social media matrix altogether at some point. While I was battling my addiction, I thought, “How could I make the most of this screen time?”. The answer for me came in being mindful of the social media content I consumed. I started to follow a lot of creators who were posting about philosophy, psychology & mindset training. I followed influencers who were creating positive content. One day, while scrolling, I saw a video of Zachery Dereniowski, also known as “MDMotivator,” on Instagram and other social platforms. If you are unfamiliar with Zachery’s content, his tagline is “Kindness is Cool '' which I love and completely agree with. In his content, he partners with different charities and businesses to positively impact people's lives. In this video he was helping a homeless person, he gave them some money and took them shopping for some new clothes. I thought I would love to do something like that, and that's when my idea crystallized. My mother is the kindest person in the world and always emphasizes giving back. My dad was a Navy man who taught me the value of self-discipline. Neither of my parents attended college. I was raised in a modest household where we were always taught to give back what we could and to appreciate what we had, as there was always someone out there who had less. I am incredibly fortunate that this is the perspective I was taught growing up. It helped me get through many difficult situations in life. I often told myself, “Millions of people would consider themselves blessed if these were their biggest concerns.” We actively volunteered from a young age, usually through the church. These volunteering experiences were primarily as greeters for church each week. My brother & I would hold the door open for the hundreds of people attending. We helped distribute food for migrant workers and participated in numerous other volunteering activities. My first semester freshman year of college I had a little too much fun with alcohol and as a consequence I was required to volunteer for 50 hours. However, this led to finding a charity I volunteered with frequently, where we made and distributed sandwiches to people and families living on the streets in downtown Chicago. This was my first extensive time engaging consistently with people who were homeless, and I was always impressed by those who could remain positive despite the difficult circumstances they faced. Fast forward 14 years, and watching a video of Zach helping a homeless person, I was inspired to create Cherry WIllow Apparel. The idea behind Cherry Willow Apparel is to provide the kind of support creators like Zach are for the homeless but at scale. The vision for Cherry Willow Apparel is to “Change how the world sees beauty by changing how the world sees the people experiencing homelessness.” I’ve found that so many people in our society tend to “dehumanize” people experiencing homelessness. I think they do this because, as individuals, there is only so much we can do. As individuals, we cannot help every person who is homeless that we see get into a home, but there are small things we can do to help. When you see a person who is homeless, introduce yourself and ask their name. Try to remember it and say hello each time you see them. This takes no money and very little of your time, but it shows you care. Sometimes, that's all that person needs, and someone caring about them can help them get through the day.
There is a gentleman who is homeless who is often at an intersection near where I live. His name is Joseph. I like to bake cookies, and my kids and I saw him one day after I had whipped up a batch. As soon as we saw him, we went home, packed up some cookies, and brought them to him. I gave him the few dollars I had to spare; finances were tight then. I always give back when I can, along with the cookies, and wished him well. My kids and I wave and smile at Joseph whenever we pass on the other side of the intersection. He always smiles, waves back, and is positive despite being on the street. The idea behind Cherry Willow Apparel is to capture the positivity that people like Joseph can maintain despite being homeless. We seek to help them to share their experience with others. The goal is to interview and connect them with people who want to help by sharing and spreading their stories. This creates a path to support the person sharing their story directly while raising awareness about the beautiful souls on the streets. The more stories we can tell about homeless people, the more impact we can have on how people think about the people experiencing homelessness. We have the power to impact so much positive change in the world, and it starts with helping those who need it the most. Together, we can get them off the streets and show the world how awesome they are!
