“For a man who claims to be terrible with names, Bryan Ring seemed to have no trouble last week at the homeless encampment near Sheridan Memorial Park in Minneapolis.
‘Hey, Robert,’ he said to a man headed to the camp’s portable toilet while wearing just one boot. ‘How are you doing? Get that boot on!’
He teased Angel Prince about spraining her thumb. ‘Whatcha been doin’, Angel? Beating up one of the guys in camp again?’
Ring, of Stillwater, had driven over for the day with a pickup truck full of supplies. It was 10 degrees and Ring was prepared. His Ford F-350 pickup truck was packed with sleeping bags, food, hand warmers, propane tanks and winter clothes, neatly labeled in bins. One huge black garbage bag was filled with men’s winter coats; another had sweatshirts.
‘Hey, do you need anything?’ Ring called out as people began gathering near the back of the truck. ‘Coat? Hat? Gloves? Mittens? Sweatshirt? Anybody need gloves? Anybody need a laundry bag? I’ve got one left.’
Al Rozier, dressed in shorts and sandals without socks, asked about a ‘big man’s coat’ and thermal long johns. Ring supplied him with both.
‘He’s a godsend,’ said Rozier. ‘He does what he can for everyone.’
‘THE STRUGGLE IS REAL’
Ring, who owns Ring Lawn Care in Stillwater, is one of the camp’s favorite aid workers, said Prince, who’s been living in homeless camps for the past six months.
‘He knows what it’s like because he lived like this, too,’ Prince said. ‘The struggle is real. It’s especially hard in winter. And Bryan’s a really great help. He volunteers all over the place. He’s good people.’
Ring, 50, started collecting donations from residents of Stillwater last summer after a visit to Powderhorn Park on his way back from dropping off tires at a tire shop in North Minneapolis. Ring grew up a block from the park, which became a haven for people displaced in the aftermath of the George Floyd riots.
‘It was already bad around the time COVID entered the picture, but then George Floyd was killed, and it got worse,’ he said. ‘Powderhorn was my park. This was, like, my ‘hood. Everything about Minneapolis made me who I am today, and I just knew I needed to do something.’
He came back from that June 24 visit and ‘ransacked, literally, my whole entire closet,’ he said.
He also posted messages on his Facebook page and on Nextdoor, a neighborhood-based social-media app, pleading for donations. ‘I said, “Hey, I’m willing to be the transport if you want to donate. These people need help,”‘ he said.
Residents stepped up, shopping at Target, Cub Foods and dollar stores. ‘Someone made a Target purchase that we picked up,’ he wrote on Facebook. ‘Another person actually shopped with us at the dollar store for much-needed supplies. We stopped at two more people’s homes on our way out for more food, clothes & a couple kid bikes. … Man, this experience of giving back is incredible. This community has blown my mind with support!’
‘I CRIED THE WHOLE WAY HOME’
Ring began making weekly trips to the homeless camp.
‘Tarps, tents, blankets, sleeping bags, shoes, socks & underwear are other top priorities,’ he wrote in a Facebook post on July 26. ‘Doing this work is work. But, the gratitude I have for my life will never come close to the gratitude I see in these displaced people’s eyes when they see us show up.’
Ring said he has been moved to tears by the people he has met in the camps, especially a 3-year-old boy named Ian and a woman in her 70s. ‘I’m tearing up just now thinking about her,’ he said of the woman. ‘When I left her at camp, I honestly felt like I Ieft my mother there. I cried the whole way home.’
Former state Sen. Jane Haugen Krentz, of May Township, is one of Ring’s biggest fans and has donated winter jackets, hats, mittens and blankets to the cause.
‘I am amazed by Bryan’s compassion and dedication,’ Krentz said. ‘Many people donate items or money or volunteer for a one-off opportunity, all of which are important, but Bryan gives his heart and soul to those in need. He builds relationships with people. He genuinely cares about them and is there for them week after week, month after month.’”
View the whole story here: https://www.twincities.com/2021/02/07/stillwater-man-is-godsend-to-people-living-in-minneapolis-homeless-camps/