My office faces the front and side of our building so I can traffic coming and going. About once a week, a pick-up (sometimes pulling a trailer), drives confidently by my window and heads toward the donation area in back. The pickup bed or trailer is loaded down with discarded furniture and an assortment of boxes and black trash bags. The drivers are on a mission to rid themselves of years of clutter from their garage, shed or storage unit and they’ve chosen us as the lucky r

The first text didn’t surprise me that much, in fact it was pretty straight forward. “One of the water heaters at the shelter just died – I mean completely died,” it read. I stared at my phone thinking, that’s not too bad, we have two big ones over there but we also have 17 residents. While I was contemplating what the effect of this reduction in hot water would mean I got a second text. “Mike (our maintenance man) thinks the other water heater is on its last leg too, but for