Every morning, five days a week, helping the homeless in Dallas takes on a fresh and fun flare at The Bridge homeless shelter’s Second Chance Café.
Longtime volunteer Debbie “Dancing Debbie” Johnson has a unique way of serving those at the shelter. She dances around during breakfast serves leaving the clients with food on their plates and smiles on their faces.
“They say ‘you make my day,’ ‘thank you,’ ‘you make me smile’ and that makes it all worth it for me,” Johnson said. “It is just such a wonderful way to start the day. It is a privilege to come here and do a little something for somebody else.”
She’s been volunteering with the organization since it first started about 10 years ago.
She doesn’t have music. The rhythm comes from heart. It’s the perfect routine for warming hearts while serving warm meals.
Johnson said the clients sometimes join the routine and the group calls themselves the “Stewpot Steppers.”
“One reason I love coming here so much is that everybody does it from the heart and that just makes it such a joy and all the wonderful people I meet coming through that door as well,” Johnson said. “I take many pages from their book and they are very kind to let me do so. I just learn a lot of things from them every single day.”
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Johnson said her son taught her the dance moves that she now happily shares with the homeless who are now like an extension of her family.
