What Exactly is Going On Friday Nights at Oneonta’s Muller Plaza*?

*Update 3-29-16: We've since moved the Kindness Station to 80 Water Street.

The Redemption Movement finally has a prime downtown location to call its own! It’s not so much a permanent location, or even a place that’s indoors, but we’ll take it all the same. What makes me so excited is the fact that, so far, in the 4 times we’ve utilized this new space, we’ve seen it expand on all the work we’ve done for the community--and in big ways!

What I’m referring to is RM’s new “Kindness Station,” located at Muller Plaza on Fridays from 10pm-3am (and Saturdays too if we can swing it). What's a Kindness Station you ask? Think of it like an outpost of sorts, designed to serve the community in a variety of ways, and have the ability to expand by meeting new needs and opportunities as they're presented. At first glance, it may look like a rather humble operation (a tent, tables and chairs, and some signs), but looks can be deceiving. There’s actually a lot going on at this little station.

HUGE night 4 #OneontaRides! 68 #SafeRides given & the #Kindness Station was a hit. People 💟 the heater on a ❄ night. pic.twitter.com/LxoG2SXN60

— Redemption Movement (@RedemptionNY) November 21, 2015

Giving Away Lots of Goodies

Front and center is a hospitality table that we keep stocked full of goodies meant to bless Oneonta’s downtown patrons. A passerbyer is welcome to grab/use any of these items, ALL FREE!:

• A cup of coffee
• Candy
• Granola bars
• Bottled water
• Capri Sun juice packets
• Breath freshening gum
• Hand sanitizer
• Kleenexes
• Phone charger

This laundry list of goodies is an absolute hit. In fact, we’ve already reached a point where most of this stuff is cleared out by the end of the night. This means a major trip to the grocery store is required before we can do it all again the next week. It also means that we end up reaching well over a hundred people per night in giveaways alone.

Restocking AoK Supplies

I find it interesting how there’s enough variety of stuff offered here to literally have something for everyone. For example, I put out a bottle of hand sanitizer one night as an afterthought. To my surprise, many folks would stop just to sanitize their hands, then thank us and move on. It's a major effort on our part to offer so much free stuff (and it drains our budget), but the upside to offering all of these goodies is that it allows us to connect with many more people than if we just offered one item, like candy.

How this expands what we do: Since RM's inception, we’ve performed dozens of different acts of kindness on hundreds of occasions, giving away dozens of different goodies to thousands of local residents. Now, for one night each week, it’s like all of our previous AoK giveaways are concentrated into one table. Past outreach efforts like our Sunday Act of Kindness would take up half a day and allow us to meet 10-25+ people per outing. With the downtown Kindness Station, we're able to bless around 10x that amount of people (or more), every week!

Safe Rides Home

You can now easily find us at the plaza for a safe ride home. If available, we’ll have one of our vehicles parked on Main Street for easy access. It kind of feels like we’ve got our very own bus stop (unofficially). And we still take calls if you need us to come to you (607.434.2564).

So far, we’re seeing the number of rides we give to be about the same as before we had the station (25-40+ riders taken home per car, per night). What I’ve discovered is that, whether we use the station or not, there’s just a limit to how many trips one vehicle can make in a 5-hour time span (the max being about 50 riders per 5-6 passenger car).

However, despite the limitations of how many trips we can make, we’ve discovered that, at the station, there’s no shortage of rides to give. Demand far outweighs supply. Here's a recent example of this:

I was responding to a call to pick up a group of 8 at Sal’s Pizza. As I was trying to call car #2 (which was out giving rides) in order to coordinate taking home this large group (I can only fit 4 people in my Kia), another large group at Sal’s asked me to pick them up after I was done taking the group in front of them home. That’s when I got a text message from Will at the station, letting me know that there were 10 people at Muller Plaza waiting for a ride… Clearly we need to trade in our cars for some vans.

Operating the Kindness Station gives us a much clearer picture of just how many people are looking for safe rides home. Now that we have a better understanding of this, we’ve added another feature to our safe ride operation; “Have us call you a cab.” At the station, we have a clipboard listing all the local cab companies, and we offer to call a cab for people who prefer this option. Taxi cab drivers can also park in front of our station if they’d like, we don’t mind. In fact, the way we see it, as long as we can play some part in getting a person home safe, whether it be by us, by cab, or by bus, we feel like we’ve accomplished what we set out to do.

It’s our hope that by using the station to; call cabs for people, welcome cabs to park nearby, as well as using the station as a hub for our vehicles (instead of parking in front of the bars where cab drivers prefer to park and wait for fares), all of these actions will help our church improve relations with the local cab companies.

How this expands what we do: Previously, finding one of our cars for a ride was a bit of a crapshoot. As we would park in front of different bars/restaurants throughout the night, we would try our best to live Tweet our location using #OneontaRides, or people would call us, or one could flag us down if they spotted us. Yet, despite these efforts, we were still difficult to find as we drove people home. This actually led to one rider recently telling me, “You’re like a mythical creature! I’ve heard of you, but I wasn’t sure you existed.” Now, people will know exactly where they can go to find us for a ride home, and if our cars are busy, then it won’t be long before we return to our designated spot. In the meantime, there will be plenty of goodies to enjoy while you wait.  

Breathalyzer Tests

Another hit of the Kindness Station has been the breathalyzer. It has it’s own table along with a sign meant to educate people on what the different levels of intoxication and DUI penalties are. The purposes of offering these tests are twofold:

1. To help someone determine whether or not they’re too drunk to drive.
2. To educate people on what their BAC is so they can associate it with however much they’ve had to drink (we’ve actually seen people commit to stop drinking for the night after finding out that their BAC is higher than what they thought it would be).

When the Kindness Station is up and running, it’s common to have a line of people waiting to get tested, and we’re currently out of breathalyzer tips from doing so many tests.

How this expands what we do: In the past, we would lean the breathalyzer sign against the car and offer tests while waiting outside. This way meant that a lot of people who wanted to get tested didn’t, due to someone approaching us for a ride in the middle of testing a group. Or, at the request of bar management, we simply couldn’t test people while parked in front of some bars, due to strict laws about bars getting penalized for knowingly serving intoxicated people. Now with the station, we can test people’s BAC levels all night long without experiencing any of these limitations.

Heat/Conversation

Near the tent sits an outdoor propane heater. On cold nights people will circle around it and chat with one another, as if they were sitting around a campfire. The heater pumps out plenty of heat, especially for those who aren’t wearing adequate clothing. Plus, we’ve discovered that the warmth of the heater actually creates a safe place where people feel comfortable engaging one another in great conversations.

In fact, many times I would find myself approaching the station/heater after giving a ride, only to feel like I’m walking into a philosophy lecture. Somehow, plopping a heater in the middle of the plaza turns it into a regular Areopagus. One recent example of this came from a young woman who was waiting for a ride at the heater.

While waiting, she talked with everybody, which included members of the Kindness Team and others who were waiting for a ride. Upon approaching, I found myself walking into the middle of a group discussion on abortion, led by this outspoken young woman. People were having passionate conversation, yet nobody seemed visibly upset, which is odd given the divisive nature of such a topic.
Someone then pointed me out as the pastor, to which the girl seemed excited about because now she has someone to grill about my church’s position on abortion. I offered to talk with her about this on the ride home and her and I ended up having a good-long chat about it after dropping off the other riders. At the end of the conversation, I felt like I could call her a friend, which isn’t typical for how these conversations usually turn out.

It’s weird to say, but I feel like the warmth of the heater, along with the loving/open-minded conversations already going at the station before I took home the outspoken young lady, attributed greatly to the success of that conversation.

How this expands what we do: In the past, we would have to cut short great conversations we were having in front of the bars, due to someone asking us to take them home. Now, we have knowledgeable/loving people stationed at one place all night long who are happy to chat with anybody about everything and anything.

The Future of the Kindness Station

42 #SafeRides given tonight. But it's about so much more than the rides. #ActOfKindness #OneontaRides #Compassion pic.twitter.com/9l8C7xYLp8

— Redemption Movement (@RedemptionNY) December 5, 2015

All of this paints a picture of the 4 Kindness Station outings we’ve done in 2015, but what about 2016? The beauty of this little station is that it has the potential to serve the community in even bigger ways. Here are just some goals we would like to implement for the Kindness Station in 2016. 

First Aid

Having a first aid kit at the station along with someone trained for emergencies would be a major asset to the downtown nightlife, as well as a help for Oneonta’s often-overwhelmed first responders. Just a few weeks ago, we drove a young man to the ER who busted his lip open on the sidewalk, and on that very same night we took a girl home who was assaulted with a beer bottle. Plus, multiple times this semester we’ve encountered and helped people who were bleeding all over the place from various injuries caused by intoxication. If the kindness station doubled as a first aid station, and if it was equipped to care for the overly intoxicated, then we could take care of many of these problems right then and there, instead of taking them to the ER for something simple like an ice pack. 

6 rides given so far, and we helped this guy that cut himself on a beer can. Lots of blood. We @ Jug #OneontaRides pic.twitter.com/csqSNQIX1r

— Redemption Movement (@RedemptionNY) October 24, 2015

Transporting Addicts to Treatment
More details are forthcoming regarding The Redemption Movement's volunteers participating in OPD’s PAARI program as “angels.” This means being with and transporting someone who wishes to have the local police department make arrangements for them to be placed into recovery. If our Kindness Station team doubles as PAARI angels, we can then inform drug addicts who we meet (and we meet several of them when we go out) about this treatment program, and even offer to give them a ride to the police station and wait with them until treatment has been arranged. Also, it would be nice to include substance abuse literature/tools at the Kindness Station.

More Fun Stuff

Here are just a few fun ideas that I’d like to implement at the Kindness Station:

• Games: A great way to bring people together.
• Picture Taking: I’ve noticed that people love snapping photos and selfies of each other while hanging out downtown. It would be cool to set up a spot at the station that has backdrop similar to what you see at movie premieres.
• Live Music: Hey, why not?  

Preventing Fights and Crime

• Fight Prevention: On big bar nights, Muller Plaza has a reputation for fights and drug deals. I’m happy to report that, in the 4 nights we’ve done the Kindness Station, not one fight has taken place at the plaza. Although, one drunk guy did attempt to climb the city Christmas tree, but I digress.
• Crime Prevention: If we ever happen to have plenty of cars and volunteers to satisfy the amount of rides requested of the Kindness Station, then I’d like to have any extra cars patrol Center City to help make the neighborhood a safer place, as well as find anybody wandering the streets who may be in need.
  

Click here to read this poor guy's story.

 
Change Downtown For the Better

While spending so much time serving the downtown scene, we want to keep an eye out for additional ways that we can improve the Oneonta nightlife. In fact, we’ve already got two big ideas that we want to see happen. 

• Unlock the Muller Plaza Gate: As we hang out at the station, we see people all night long hopping the gate separating Main St. from Water St. Eventually, someone is going to hurt themselves doing this. We've already sent out emails and talked to key personnel about changing this gate locking policy. Plus, if the gate was unlocked, then Water Street's bar-goers could more easily access the plaza for a safe ride home.

• Bring In Porta-Potties: Downtown bathrooms are very limited, especially when the bars close. For downtown Oneonta at night, public urination is a common sight. In fact, people will brazenly pee on the actual storefronts of Main Street. This is why the stairwells of the parking garage always reek of urine--even after our church takes the time to clean them. Having the Kindness Station include some kind of porta potty trailer (that’s nicer than a regular ol’ porta potty) would really help alleviate this all-too-common problem.  

An Opportunity For More Volunteers

In the 4 Kindness Station outings we’ve done, we’ve been able to pull this off with as little as 3 volunteers, and we’ve had as many as 6; all people organized using the “Oneonta Kindness Team” Facebook Group. As you can see from these big plans, this little kindness operation can accommodate a much larger team of volunteers, and the more help we have = the more good we can do. It’s my hope that local organizations will catch this vision and get their people involved, and that, as more people become more experienced in running the station, we would be able to do it both Fridays and Saturdays, and maybe more.

This All Sounds Awesome! How Can I Help?

I’m glad you asked. The Kindness Station is still a new thing. As you can imagine, it’s aggressive approach to serving the community requires a good amount of supplies, volunteers, and funds in order to pull off. Here are just a few of the ways you can help.

• Join the Facebook Group “Oneonta Kindness Team” to stay on top of the latest news, and to find out when the next outing will be when you can help. Other needs and kindness opportunities besides volunteering at the station are brought up in this group as well.
• Sharing what we do with others. Whether it be word of mouth or social media, only good things will come as a result of more people hearing about what’s going on at Muller Plaza.
• Donate to the free ride service. It costs money to pay for gas, car insurance, and repairs, and it would be amazing if we could upgrade to vans so we can take more people home.
• Donate to the Kindness Station. All the goodies we give away, propane we burn, and breathalyzer tips we use, it all cost money. These expenses can really add up. In fact, insurance alone for the station is $137/month. Currently, we need more money to pull this off than what our little church can provide.

The kicker to all of our money needs is that we can’t accept tips while giving rides, and we’re not allowed to collect money at the Kindness Station. Therefore, online crowdfunding and outside fundraising are the lifelines to keeping this good thing going. This operation runs entirely off of donations, so a gift of any amount will go a long way.

For more information on how you can help, or to share any ideas that you have on ways we can use this Kindness Station to meet more needs in the community, contact Pastor Kaler. Or, feel free to stop by Muller Plaza on a Friday night and see for yourself what the Kindness Station is all about!