FRANKLYWNOW - ‘It was a very rough year’: Bean’s Cafe holds candlelight vigil

Beans Café Executive Director Lisa Sauder says 2015 has been an especially tough year for the homeless in Anchorage — at least 47 of their clients have passed away.

Monday’s candlelight vigil was an opportunity for them to mourn together as a community and honor friends lost.

They read aloud the names of the the homeless individuals who have died in the last 10 years, adding to the list as recently as this past weekend.

“Those are names and people that the community here knew and loved,” said Sauder. “Those people, they sat side by side with them every day and enjoyed meals and volunteered together here at the café and shared laughs and shared their hopes and their dreams.”

Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz also addressed the crowd at the event Monday.

“I hope as you heard the names here today, you remembered, you grieved, you resolved — you resolved to act on hope, you resolved to find progress, and that we all of us, all of us in this community of Anchorage, all of us in this state of Alaska, we have the ability to make things better,” said Mayor Ethan Berkowitz.

With song and prayer, and a message of hope, people at Bean’s know their friends and loved ones might be gone, but they’re not forgotten.

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