Gaithersburg Garbage Truck Driver Helps Feed, Clothe Homeless

Gaithersburg local Arnold Harvey appeared in last week’s issue of People and Fortune.com as one of Fortune’s Heroes of the 500.

Harvey was honored in the Heroes of the 500 for starting the nonprofit organization God’s Connection Transition with his wife, Theresa Harvey. God’s Connection Transition is a nonprofit that reaches about 5,000 families in need each month.

“God’s Connection was started with the purpose of helping people who were in a dire need or living on the streets,” Arnold Harvey told Patch. “On my route, I noticed homeless people. It was a few at first, but when the economy kind of bottomed out, it seemed to be more and more every time I turned around. We just wanted to assist at any place where we could, make life a little easier, a little better for them. We did whatever we could to try and help them and encourage them.”

Arnold and Theresa Harvey began by taking bagged lunches, blankets, coats and water to people on the streets and just talking to them.

Theresa Harvey told Patch that since the start of the organization, things have changed. The organization works with other groups, which allows them to reach more people and bring families into warehouses where they can get the things that they need.

The name of the organization means “God joining people together to undergo a change.” Theresa Harvey said when she sat down to come up with a name for the organization, that was the message she wanted to send to people.

The organization is currently in the process of launching the A.R.K. program -- Arise, Rebuild with Knowledge.

“It’s a two-year program, providing housing and a vocational school,” Theresa Harvey said. “It would provide for those who are willing to change and want something better.”

Participants in the program will be asked to make a two year commitment to the vocational school. They will also be given the opportunity and assistance to rent an apartment for the duration of the program.

“It doesn’t matter where the people are coming from, just the fact that they are working and willing to make a change and a commitment for two years,” Theresa Harvey said. “We’re working on trying to find ground and funding. But we’re not going to stop ‘til we keep moving forward.”