A fluke path to Red Bridge Project

Marilyn Hare has lived a pretty good life in Canfield.

With three kids grown and five grandkids blossoming, she and husband Jean will become inaugural snowbirds this winter.

But wherever she’s been, opening her heart to others has been a passion.

Opening her home to a stranger this fall ironically opened her heart to a need right under her nose — and under a downtown bridge.

The Red Bridge Project she started with her friends (search for it on Facebook), in a roundabout way, started with her nephew.

He’s a student at Ohio University, and his roommate was headed to Youngstown for a photojournalism class project. Knowing his aunt’s heart, the nephew figured his roommate would find a home, meal or whatever else he’d need at Aunt Marilyn’s.

All true.

But Aunt Marilyn had no idea what she would find. CK Vijayakumar is no ordinary college roommate, Marilyn would learn when she opened her home to him in October.

On this Thanksgiving weekend, she is so, so thankful for a new opportunity to help at a time in her life when taking it easy is the plan.

CK — a citizen of India — has spent five years in the United States. Texas and Los Angeles were stops before landing this fall in Athens, Ohio, for graduate school. He has a yearning for challenged places and people.

“There’s real danger and a perception of danger,” he said. “I get a kick out of going places where there’s a perception of danger and disproving it.”

His class this year required a 10-day photojournalism project, and he thought of Youngstown. He had visited here a couple times via his LA roommate, who is a Youngstowner. He was captivated by what he saw as the Valley’s legacies of sports, steel and abandonment.

His time here in October took him to Warren, got him into Cardinal Mooney’s locker room during its football game with Ursuline and Jack Loew’s boxing gym.

He would spend his days wandering the Valley for his class project. He would stay up late telling Marilyn of his encounters.

Of all his encounters, it was a beer at the Draught House in downtown Youngstown that opened the most special door that eventually would open Marilyn’s heart as well.

“This guy was behind me at the bar,” CK said. “His hands were dirty, and I thought he was a steel-worker or like that, and could help my story.”

He struck up a conversation. The guy was Bill, and he was the leader of a group of homeless people living under a Youngstown bridge.

The two talked, and Bill was excited by CK’s project and invited him to come visit the group.

“He seemed like a very nice person. He did not coerce me to come down. He was just excited about the project and to have their story told.”

For the next six days — a few hours at the start of his day and a few hours at the end — CK was part of Bill’s group. Their home is under the Spring Commons Bridge that connects Mahoning Avenue to downtown. Remember CK’s fascination with real fear and perceived fear?

“I used to walk on South Avenue and Market Street till 9:30 at night. There, I felt a sense of danger. There’s zero danger with the homeless.”

He shared their stories with Marilyn, and she felt compelled to do something — anything.

“ I knew the homeless existed. But I never knew how to go about helping them. I just assumed they drifted all over and lived in abandoned homes.

“When CK told me their stories, I asked CK what did he think I could do?”

She decided to bag up some lunches, and some friends — Stacy Sheetz, Kelly Platt and Kimberly Dunlap — gained interest as well.

On Nov. 11, they headed downtown with kids and grandkids. They met Bill at a nearby parking lot, and he invited them down to the bridge area.

“It was such a good vibe that day for everyone. I didn’t want it to be one and done,” said Marilyn.

The ladies talked and decided to do something for Thanksgiving and Christmas, and that grew into an official name for their effort: the Red Bridge Project. They invite others to join them. Sign on with them on Facebook.

Next Sunday, Marilyn’s group will meet up again with Bill and the bridge community. They will deliver food and other necessities, and also some love.

“I want them to feel they have a bit of home, even if they do not have a home,” said Marilyn.

“Billy said they’re not the only homeless people in Youngstown. I would like to find out their stories, too. This makes me feel humble, and I want them to feel not forgotten.”

That Bill’s camp exists in the U.S. surprises CK.

“In India, homelessness seems more acceptable because it is such a poor country, overall,” he said, noting that the Indians you see come to the U.S. are of a more-privileged background.

“It’s more surprising for me to see it in the U.S. You see people coming here from around the world for more opportunity. I feel there’s an abundance of wealth here.”

Most startling was seeing a female in Bill’s camp. He said her homeless challenges are compounded by the men harassing her and soliciting her for sex. She has a male friend who checks in on her often and acts as a protector.

CK found irony in where they live and how, at another time in U.S. history, it would seem idyllic.

“They choose to live under a bridge; they do not want to live in regimented places. They like their freedom,” CK said. “Where they actually live is beautiful. It’s isolated enough to say, ‘This place belongs to me.’ A couple hundred years ago, that would have been an ideal place. Now we live in this capitalized world, and you have to have a house. If you don’t look at life that way, they live in a great place.”

Todd Franko is editor of The Vindicator. He likes emails about stories and our newspaper. Email him at tfranko@vindy.com. He blogs, too, on vindy.com. Tweet him, too, at @tfranko.