Dear Friends and Family,

     During these difficult economic times, we have all had to take a hard look at our expenditures, including our charitable donations,  It makes me sad to ignore pleas for donations from organizations I've supported for years, but I must.        At Fresh Start where I volunteer and serve on the board of directors, we see evidence of this every day.  While donations are fewer, more people come to us asking for assistance.  Please visit our homepage to learn about the myriad services we provide.        To make matters even worse, grant money is drying up and large corporate gifts have virtually disappeared.  Fresh Start is desperately in need of funding to continue helping those in need!  To enable us to continue our service to the homeless and working poor, we have cut costs of operation to the bare minimum.  After our founder and Executive Director, Susan Prather, died in 2008, Bill Lunghi has assumed her responsibilities as Executive Director, but on a voluntary basis, not as a salaried position.  He continues to act as Chief Financial Officer, donating his expertise as a CPA.  Also, we have partnered with Loaves and Fishes and they now supply our midday meal free of charge.
          I recently discovered an easy way to help beyond my volunteer hours.  I have simply cut back on unnecessary "extras"--the lattes at the coffee house, the impulse buy at the store, the article of clothing that I don't need and which will hang unworn in my closet.  

     I urge you to consider joining me and making a tax-deductible donation.  As little as $10 a month, $.33 a day, combined with gifts from others, will make a huge difference in the lives of so many.

     It's simple to set up an automatic monthly gift.  Visit our homepage and click on "Donations Accepted Here."  You'll be guided through the steps to sign up with PayPal.  Or, if you prefer, you can make arrangements for an automatic transfer through your bank or credit union.  To do this, you will need a copy of a voided Fresh Start check.  Just call or drop me an email and I'll mail it to you.  

     Of course, we welcome checks at Fresh Start, 1924 Trinity Avenue, Walnut Creek, CA 94596.  If you're like me, though, I'd just as soon save the postage!

     Thank you!   Robin Lunghi
     Like many avid readers, I have "stacks."  Of course there's the "already read" stack, waiting to be passed on to friends or to be donated.  Then there's the "someday" stack--books recommended by friends, but after reading the jackets . . . well, you get the picture.  The most important stack is the "next" stack, with next month's book club's selection usually uppermost.
     Occasionally, I discover a book that intrigues me to such an extent that it never even makes it to the "next" stack.  Same Kind of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore, with Marilyn Vincent, is my most recent discovery.
     One day at Fresh Start, a young womam came with her car loaded with donations--clothing, warm jackets, and food for the pantry.  Several participants volunteered to help her carry her gifts inside.  I thanked her and asked how she'd heard of Fresh start.  "Oh, we found you," she replied.  "After our last month's book club selection, we just had to find someplace that served the homeless.  All these donations are from my book club members!"
     She proceeded to tell me about Different, the true story of a homeless man and a wealthy art dealer, and the almost Odd Couple-ish friendship they forged.  The next day, a couple of mouse clicks on the Amazon.com website, and the book was on its way.
     Same Kind of Different as Me is a fast read, but far from an easy one.  Told from the dual perspective of Denver, an African-American homeless man raised as a sharecropper, and Ron, a wealthy man who is persuaded by his wife, Debbie, to volunteer at a homeless shelter, the narrative grabs the reader and does not relinquish its grip until the last page.  There were times, though, I must admit, I had to put the book down long enough to replenish my Kleenex supply.  Many times I read snippets aloud to my husband.  Several found their way into my journal.  The entire book is lodged in my heart.
     I have another "stack" that really isn't a stack at all, but a section of a bookshelf I like to call "keepers."  They are books that have had such an impact on me that they will reside with me always.  I will lend them, of course, but only to the most trustworthy of borrowers.  Same Kind of Different as Me now resides with that special collection.  Like its neighbors, written by Harper Lee, Maya Angelou, Anne Lamott, Anna Quindlen, Robert Fulghum, and Brian Copeland, this book forced me to turn the lens, made me see life, and myself, with a sharper focus.
     I recommend it without reservation.  And you may certainly borrow my copy, but only if you promise to return it!