'Help Keep Warm' collects bags for homeless

Last year, Ricki South and her small band of volunteers managed to raise enough funds to purchase nearly 900 sleeping bags for the region's homeless.

This year, she's shooting for 1,000. But, as usual, the collection is off to a slow start, said South, who founded helpkeepwarm.org to provide a small amount of comfort to those living on the streets.

Bulk order sleeping bags have gone up from $5 each to $7 each, plus shipping, this year, so, it will be a bit more of a challenge.

"I'm hoping to get 1,000 bags. Last year, we were just shy of that," South said. "Really, I'm hoping to get that many and go to at least five counties. I'd like to get into the St. Pete area, because of the large homeless population there."

Helpkeepwarm.org started in 2007, a year after South lost her husband to alcoholism.

Suffering from dementia and liver disease, Mark South ended up on the streets for nearly two weeks before he died.

It stirred something inside South, she said. That first year, she had only 14 bags to distribute.

So, she started www.helpkeepwarm.org to spread the word, and the community has come through.

Brandon attorney Thomas P. Gill Jr. has offered space again for storage, and Wells Fargo Bank's Lakeland branch has selected Help Keep Warm as its charity for this year and donated $500. The Red Hat group The Bold and the Beautiful has been saving money all year to donate, South said. Tailbot House, a soup kitchen in Lakeland, donated $125.

"Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," she said.

"Every year we've gone out, it is just a phenomenal reaction," said Vicki Giordano, who has been with South since the beginning. "Everyone is so grateful and polite and thankful. They are beside themselves that people are taking the time and effort to think about them."

"It's amazing to see Ricki take it from out of her garage and just delivering 50 sleeping bags and to watch her energy expand this operation," Giordano said.

Her own company, American Surveying Inc. in Tampa, also donates. "The reason we do that is because we know that 100 percent of the donations go right to the end user," Giordano said.

South said she is hoping to distribute the bags the first week of December, but that depends on the weather.

"I'm just hoping we get enough donations to make a bag order at the end of November."

Donations can be made at www.helpkeepwarm .org or by sending a check or sleeping bag to 708 Milliford Place, Brandon, FL 33510.