Disguised Opportunity

When Stephanie Bowman — homeless and addicted to cocaine — placed her 5-year-old daughter, Amber, in a dumpster as she foraged for food, a stranger who owned a nearby restaurant shouted at her to stop.

She said “You’ll never put your kid in a d umpster again. I’ll make sure we have something here every day,” Bowman recalled. “And she did.” I knew that was the purest sign somebody loved us. Someone who didn’t even know us.

It was an act of kindness that Bowman wouldn’t forget — even when she hit rock bottom in 1999 after her daughters, Amber and Katie, were placed in foster care. She got sober and regained custody of her girls, and in 2009, she founded One Hear for Women and Children, a non – profit in Orlando, Florida, that now serves 3,000 people a month, provi ding food, clothing, shelter and more.

There’s no shame, no judgment. Everybody’s time of transition looks different. And then it becomes, “Who can I help today?