On Sunday, Jan. 29, a group of 22 students from the Smittcamp Family Honors College at Fresno State took part in an eye-opening and deeply meaningful community service event at the homeless camps in downtown Fresno. Affectionately known as the ‘Hot-Dog Run’,this project is the brainchild of Mr. Scott Bellefeuille, the founder of Our Dog Ministries. Mr.Bellefeuille was homeless for three-and-a-half years. Years later, Scott and his wife DeeDee are offering ‘Hope and Hot Dogs for the Homeless’ roughly once a month and Our Dog Ministries is set to celebrate three years of amazing work.
The Honors students played an instrumental role in the last Hot-Dog Run: hot-dogs were barbequed and wrapped in foil, bags with condiments, chips, and napkins were assembled,clothing was sorted and labeled, and there was even a group that put together bags of dog food for the animals the folks keep for companionship. After everything was ready to go, the students caravanned downtown to three different homeless encampments and began walking around,distributing food, clothing, and goodwill as they did so. A grand total of 312 bags of food and many items of clothing were given out that day; the experience afforded by this volunteer work will surely stay with these students for a long time. Anyone interested in taking part in a profoundly moving service project can contact Scott Bellefeuille at OurDogMinistry@yahoo.com.
Written by Daniel Ward