Local Charity Coping In Economy

Alabama Mobile Zero Gravity Ministries is helping the homeless one bus ride at a time.

by Chad Petri

Published: Sun, November 23, 2008 - 9:26 pm CST Last Updated: Sun, December 14, 2008 - 2:08 pm CST

"We pass out clothes and let them pick em out, it's kind of been picked over today,” says Zero Gravity Ministries Co-Founder Pam Maloney. The non-profit group was started about eight years ago specializing in homeless outreach.

“It was just something that struck me but one day, I was sitting in church and it's time for me to get up and start doing something, but we felt like we were empty sitting there in church,” says co-founder Huey Crabtree. He drives a bus through downtown mobile once a week and picks up homeless men looking for a meal, mended clothes and ministry.

“Our goal was to make it as homely as possible, have a cup of coffee, a shower,” says Pam Maloney. After not receiving an electric bill for several months, the group was recently hit with a $3400 bill.

“I didn't know it was that serious and they told me oh yeah it was serious, they was fixing to disconnect this building the very next morning” says Crabtree. He says they've been paying it off gradually. He says the demand for their services has gradually been going up in recent years.

“I mean these guys are went out, on the streets, I'm talking literal crack heads, and they went back to 20 and 30 dollars an hour jobs being productive citizens,” says Crabtree. He says three families pitch in $2000 a month to pay for food, utility bills and gas. For more information on the group or donations, you can .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). Their donation address is:

Zero Gravity Ministries
PO Box 190545
Mobile, AL 36619

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cameo Says:

Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 1:57 pm

Ummmmm after not recieving a bill for several months didn’t it dawn on them to be calling and checking it out ? What did they think that Alabama Power Company “was giving them free power ?” Seems to me that this is bad money management so why should we help throw good money into a charity that has bad management practices ? Where was the money going that should have paid the power bill on a monthly basis ?