{"id":28042,"date":"2022-12-18T19:49:15","date_gmt":"2022-12-19T00:49:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=28042"},"modified":"2022-12-18T19:49:20","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T00:49:20","slug":"homeless-lakeland-residents-treated-to-vip-christmas-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2022\/12\/18\/homeless-lakeland-residents-treated-to-vip-christmas-experience\/","title":{"rendered":"Homeless Lakeland residents treated to VIP Christmas experience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Loraine Seales walked four blocks with temperatures in the 50s to get a makeover and a hot meal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"876\" height=\"493\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 876px) 100vw, 876px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/176G2626_01.MP4.00_13_21_19.Still001.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-28043\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt made me feel different and wonderful,\u201d Seales said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She is one of the many homeless residents of Lakeland who were treated to a Christmas VIP experience Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u201cIt means a lot to me, I feel very good in spirit inside,\u201d Ralph Pearson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From haircuts to a 3-course meal, it was a moment Paulette Rolle-Alesnik hoped made them feel seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIf there\u2019s one thing our 40-something volunteers do, it might be a touch, it might be the lipstick, it might just be the way they put that food on the table, remind them of where they were before they became homeless,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">She said it\u2019s more than just an event; she hopes to spark change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s their choice,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s because they\u2019ve given up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThey\u2019re at the bottom of the barrel and they don\u2019t want to move,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe do events like this so they can remember and be reminded there\u2019s some people out there to help you and there\u2019s a better way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Their parting advice? This is something you can do every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you see someone on the side of the street, just say hello.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ask them their name, and notice what they\u2019re wearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just let them know they\u2019re seen in this world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Loraine Seales walked four blocks with temperatures in the 50s to get a makeover and a hot meal. \u201cIt made me feel different and wonderful,\u201d Seales said. She is one&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[4081],"class_list":["post-28042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-homeless-lakeland-residents-treated-to-vip-christmas-experience"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}