Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 29, 1995 TAG: 9510310039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JULIA PRODIS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: SAN ANTONIO LENGTH: Medium
Hanging out among the rock piles and broken beer bottles under the Nolan Street Bridge, Larry and his homeless buddies waited for the "50 Dollar Man."
He'd been showing up at the homeless shelters on either side of the freeway overpass every Wednesday for the last three weeks, handing out stacks of $50s and $20s from the window of his pickup truck.
Larry and his buddies didn't want to miss him if he showed - but they were a little skeptical, especially after the melee that broke out the last time.
As they passed around 40-ounce beers wrapped in brown paper bags on the warm October afternoon, their eyes darted to the Salvation Army a block to the east and the Christian Assistance Ministries shelter a block to the west.
``I can run either way,'' said gap-toothed Larry, a 47-year-old Vietnam veteran who asked that his last name not be used because he doesn't want his mother to know he's homeless.
The 50 Dollar Man - a homeless man who struck it rich - wants to remain anonymous, too. He will use only his first name, Mark.
``The important thing is that I stay anonymous and then I can continue helping these people,'' he told the San Antonio Express-News last week. He declined an interview with The Associated Press.
The 36-year-old benefactor, a blond man with a neatly trimmed mustache, usually shows up wearing jeans, a casual shirt with rolled-up sleeves and silver-tipped black suede cowboy boots.
He said he was homeless for six months in Orlando, Fla., 14 years ago when he got laid off from a lumber yard: ``I was helping out some street people and they stole the last $80 I had, and then I was out on the street.''
He returned to the Midwest to join the family business - manufacturing boiler parts. Eventually, he sold that company, and moved his wife, his two children and his aircraft parts company to San Antonio in April.
``I found God,'' he said, and wanted to use his wealth to help others.
He has become an angel to the street people on Skid Row, eight blocks from the Alamo and the River Walk of pricey shops and cafes.
Because of him, many homeless people walk around with new Walkmans and tennis shoes. Some pooled their money for a hotel room last weekend, watched football and ate pizza.
But a shelter administrator says the cash is causing trouble - street people are buying booze and drugs, and the publicity is attracting those who aren't even needy.
The benefactor told the San Antonio newspaper that he didn't care what people did with the money.
But last week he switched from cash to $20 Wal-Mart gift certificates - and he handed them out Tuesday instead of Wednesday, disappointing homeless people waiting around on Wednesday.
Michael Janiga, who works at the shelter doing laundry and helped hand out Wal-Mart coupons Tuesday, said the 50 Dollar Man's giveaways were getting out of control, ``so now it's kind of a hit-and-run kind of thing.''
So a day later, on Wednesday, dozens of street people congregated outside both shelters, waiting and hoping.
by CNB