This article originally appeared in the December 2020 print edition of The Zebra, an Alexandria, VA-based “ALL GOOD NEWS” printed tabloid.
By Susan Fleischman | December 1, 2020
Every Sunday, when Dr. William Mazzella would drive to church with his family, he would notice the homeless people on the streets along the way, a sad and disturbing sight. Mazzella knew he had to do something. In fact, he felt a calling, a strong impulse to help that he just could not ignore.
It was not the first time in his life that he had felt so compelled. As a pre-teen, Mazzella would accompany his mother on her volunteer rounds to neighborhood nursing homes. One day he met a man who had suffered a debilitating stroke that had a deleterious effect on his speech. This man was trying to communicate something to his nurse, but he could not form the words; he eventually burst into tears of frustration and despair, leaving an indelible impression on young Mazzella who went home and wrote a program on his computer that would enable stroke patients to communicate by means of a keyboard.
“I’ve often thought about that man,” Mazzella says. “I think he was grateful to know that some kid thought enough about him to create a program to solve his problem.” Indeed, that level of respect, compassion, and care for his fellow man would inform Mazzella through his education and subsequent vocation.
In November 2019, Mazzella realized the answer to his calling and launched MedStreet, a nonprofit with a mission to administer medical care to the homeless. In the pre-COVID-19 days, Mazzella and his wife and baby would appear under the darkness of night on the streets where the homeless lived. Wait! With the baby? Yes.
Mazzella explains, “Our baby Joseph was the icebreaker, actually. When I first started to reach out to these people, I was a pariah, a circus side act.” Mazzella says they didn’t know what to make of him, and he felt shunned. “That was fair,” he says. “The shunning was good for me. They get a good dose of it themselves so maybe I needed to feel that, too.”
Mazzella kept showing up and eventually he earned their respect. Word spread and now he is better known and received. His wife and baby don’t accompany him anymore due to COVID-19, but he continues his work. When he arrives, he can speak to them individually, to see if they’re ok, and ask if they need anything. Often the answer is “No, thanks. Well, maybe yes.”
The homeless folks he visits are beginning to refer him to their friends. “It’s easier to help when they have a degree of trust. They’ll say, “Thanks, I’m fine, but Bob around the corner is on a bench and he’s in trouble. Please go check on him.” They are a tight-knit community – even though they appear to have nothing, they have each other and their faith.
One very cold night, he came upon a sleeping, shivering man lying on a cardboard box. Mazzella placed some items next to him, socks, bandages, etc. The man startled awake and, after Mazzella explained who he was, they sat and talked for about an hour. The man said he wanted to pray, so they prayed together. According to Mazzella, “The homeless people I meet are very in tune to their spiritual side. Having lost everything, they still have their faith, God, and religion.”
Mazzella is himself a man of faith and looked to Mark 2:17 in the Bible as the inspiration for his work. “Jesus said, ‘It’s not the healthy who need a physician, it’s the sick.’ While the meaning was more related to a spiritual healing, I feel it applies to this work.”
Mazzella’s compassion and care can be found not only in his work, but also in the stories he shares on the MedStreet website. The dignity and respect with which he writes about his homeless patients reads like a Victorian novel, with “Lady Godiva”, “Gentleman Jack”, and the “Count of Monte Cristo”. Of course, he uses these pseudonyms to protect their identities, but it goes further than that. “The Victorian era had a societal formality to it, with pomp and circumstance. I wanted to bring that to the people I was trying to help, as so often their surroundings are just the opposite.”
The primary focus of MedStreet is to take care of these people so they feel love, respect, and care. Mazzella does some work with food-related charities in the area, joining them on some of their rounds to see if medical care is needed in the homes that receive food. It is MedStreet’s “care crowd-sourcing” model that Mazzella wants to share. Rather than marshalling other doctors to help, he wants MedStreet to become a resource for similar professionals to use.
The team at MedStreet is working on a platform to assist with the myriad of regulatory hurdles (Pharmacy Board, malpractice insurance, HIPAA compliance, e.g.) so doctors can lead teams once the COVID-19 threat is minimized and they can work in larger groups to help people.
Additionally, the team is looking to create a resource engine on the website with a two-pronged approach. One part would enable people to make in-kind donations, and the other part would allow the homeless to log in and make specific requests for needed items (socks are the most requested). Once that engine is in place, a donor will be able see a specific item that has been requested and provide that need directly.
If you would like to help the worthy mission of MedStreet right now, they are always grateful to accept donations. Sign up on the website (www.medstreet.org) to keep in touch, receive timely updates, and perhaps become a volunteer. They will be hosting a month of Giving Tuesdays in December and launch a new fundraising campaign during the Valentine season in February.
“The volunteer work is very rewarding. People want to be involved in something good,” says Mazzella. “I know I always want to give more than I get, but every single time I end up getting more than I give.”
MedStreet Inc. is a nonprofit, tax-exempt charitable organization (TIN# 83-4054043) under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS Code. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. MedStreet’s CFC number is 94703.