"..All this happens at a price. We cannot foresee a miraculous season that in which no deaths or injuries occur. We know that we will be out dispensing blankets in the wind and the snow. We also know that literally as well as figuratively, we will be breaking down the doors and walls that separate us from the very poor and that stand between them and their survival. We do it gladly, grateful that some of the scales have dropped from our eyes."
Mitch Snyder, 1983

Mitch Snyder invested nearly twenty years of his life in an effort to draw public attention to the iniquitous distribution of resources in our society and the devastating human consequences of that distribution. He consistently challenged the privileged and comfortable to consider how their own lives and consumption played a part in the creation of homelessness and other forms of persistent poverty in the United States.

Snyder, when asked how one could make a contribution to the elimination of destitution, would quickly suggest that the person quit what ever it was that they were doing at the time and become part of the work being done with, and on behalf of the poor, at the Washington, D.C. based, Community for Creative Non-Violence (CCNV) of which he was a member. He counseled those seeking his advise to take not just a theoretical or theological interest in the lives and misery of the poor, but to make an actual, personal commitment to making a difference.

During Snyder’s involvement at CCNV, the group ministered to the needs of thousands of homeless women, men and children in the nation’s capital. They also relentlessly called upon the federal and municipal government to respond to their needs with prompt, appropriate action.

Snyder’s singular commitment to the nation’s poor and homeless put him on a collision course with then President Ronald Reagan. Snyder and CCNV gained access to an abandoned, federal building, eight blocks from the Capitol and used it for what was intended to be a temporary, winter shelter for the homeless. When CCNV and those homeless staying at the shelter refused to leave in the spring, a confrontation lasting nearly a year began. It culminated with Snyder engaging in a fast which he declared would be "until death" or until the federal government agreed to provide sufficient funding to operate a shelter in the nation’s capital that would be model for the rest of America.

Snyder’s fast lasted over fifty days. The public sympathy resulting from it convinced President Reagan to approve funding for the shelter Snyder and CCNV demanded.

The story of that confrontation was eventually produced as a made for T.V. movie, Samaritans: The Mitch Snyder Story, in the Spring of 1986. Snyder and CCNV used the notoriety and moral authority they had acquired to help create a movement that carried out a nationally coordinated day of action against the scandal of homelessness in America.

On July l4, 1988, attention and support for the "National Affordable Housing Act" was generated through actions in over seventy cities across the U.S.A. Most involved building take overs and other acts of civil disobedience.

In October of 1989 the movement that Snyder helped create brought over 140,000 people to Washington to demand increased federal support for affordable housing.

Less than a year after that march on Washington Snyder was dead. He committed suicide in July of 1990.

Most agree that Snyder took his life because of a string of defeats-locally in D.C. and nationally-which left him depressed and disillusioned about the prospects for success for the movement he helped create and guided.

Those of us involved with First Church Shelter on a day to day basis do not believe that the circumstances surrounding Snyder’s death diminishes, in any way, the prophetic and inspirational nature of his life.

We think that the life he donated towards the goal of eliminating homelessness in America is a life that should not only be remembered but emulated. Indeed, most of us believe that, until those of us who enjoy lives of relative comfort and privilege recognize that our good fortune comes at the expense of others, there will be no significant diminishment in the suffering and degradation endured by the homeless. We believe that more lives need to be donated towards the creation of a just and peaceful world, a world in which the basic amenities many of us take for granted are enjoyed by all.

Towards that end, each year, we recognize men and women whose life and efforts exemplify the selfless commitment and courage Mitch Snyder demonstrated during his life. In presenting these individuals with the Mitch Snyder Award we hope to encourage others to be edified by, and emulate Snyder’s example.

We realize that there are many women and men, all across this country, who have donated and dedicated their lives towards the goal of eliminating homelessness and poverty. In choosing these individuals we, in no way, wish to diminish or negate the lives and labors of others. We have simply chosen men and women who we feel are doing all that they can to keep a dream and a hope alive. That dream and that hope is that, some day all of us may know the simple pleasure of having enough to eat and a place to lay our head at night.

The 2002 Award Recipients:

The Women and Men of First Church Cambridge, Congregational
The 2002 Mitch Snyder Award was presented on Sunday, February 10, 2002 to the women and men of First Church Cambridge, Congregational. The award recognized their ongoing support of First Church Shelter and their generous gifts of renovated facilities for the shelter.