Gateway 180 Homeless Shelter had just started a Bedtime Story Hour. Josh Kazdan, son of Linda Algra and Andrew Kazdan of Olivette, wanted to help kids learn to read. What a perfect match.

Every Monday and Wednesday nights for several weeks, Josh, his mother, and some of his friends would read to the children at Gateway 180 for about one hour at bedtime. This was a way to expose books to the kids and provide a bedtime ritual for them. “We loosely grouped them into ages and genders depending on how many readers we had. Sometimes, a child at the shelter wanted to read to us and where possible we encouraged that,” Josh said.

Josh continued saying, “The children were ecstatic to see us and would often cling to us and my mother for hugs when we left. They always wanted to know when we would return.”

Josh heard children’s stories of spending their days in the park when it was 100 degrees because they didn’t have anywhere else to go. A fourteen-year-old girl told the other kids that they had to plan and have dreams. This impressed Josh because her life was so unpredictable.

“In doing this project, I was glad to have been able to provide children with something to look forward to. I hope to continue to help during vacations.  I feel that I gained more from this experience than I gave because I learned that much of what happens to you depends on your starting point and the resources and education that are accessible to you,” said Josh.

After his mitzvah project, Josh, a student at John Burroughs School, read the book “Nickel and Dimed.” The author, Barbara Ehrenreich, wonders if single mothers, who, due to recent welfare reform, depend solely on what they can make at low-wage jobs, will be able to survive financially. To answer this question, she decides to survive on low wages in three cities in America. Josh’s take from the book is that it takes tremendous resources to achieve literacy when parents are poorly educated, homeless and unemployed. “It made me grateful,” he said.

Gateway 180 is a valuable resource for women and children experiencing the unimaginable burden of homelessness. They provide safe, nurturing emergency shelter services designed to get families into transitional or permanent homes in under 30 days. For more information about Gateway 180, visit [email protected] or call 314-231-1515.