By Lindsay Larin

Bellevue Reporter

For Tricia Lapitan, it began on a cold December day with a string of Christmas lights and a cup of hot chocolate. Lapitan, the founder of the non-profit organization called Heroes for the Homeless, can remember back to that fateful day in December 2006. Determined to string her holiday lights despite the cold weather, Lapitan stood outside her house with only numb fingers and knotted light strings to show for her hours of work.

Discouraged and cold, Lapitan went indoors to join her mother and sister and warm up with a cup of hot chocolate. As she stood outdoors surveying her lack of progress, a thought dawned on her. If she was this cold after spending only an hour or two outdoors, what about all the people without homes during the holiday time?

Energized with a new mission, Lapitan recruited her mother and sister’s help to gather hot chocolate and cups and pass them out to the homeless living on the streets in the Seattle area. This simple acted of kindness soon grew into a quiet movement that has sparked the beginning of change in the city.

on Oct. 25 and running through the weekend, Qwest Field Pavilion will host the 2008 Seattle Food and Wine Experience. The inaugural event will feature thousands of wines and food courtesy of some of Seattle’s top restaurants. The proceeds from the weekend-long event will benefit Heroes for the Homeless.

The event also will include an Eco Lounge that will feature sustainable furniture, environmentally friendly auto makers and organic food and wine for auction.

Lapitan hopes the proceeds from the Seattle Food and Wine Experience will help them purchase more supplies during the cold winter months while raising awareness about the rising number of homeless that call the streets of Seattle and the Eastside home. Through her organization, Lapitan and volunteers distribute food, hot chocolate, hygiene products, clothing and other survival supplies.

Lapitan began the organization with no secured funding, only a passion for helping the less fortunate. In 2007, she decided for her birthday instead of presents she wanted her friends and family to bake batches of cupcakes to hand out to the homeless. By the time her birthday rolled around she had 2,100 cupcakes to hand out.

“It took me 17 hours and I went to every shelter in Seattle and under every bridge and highway that we had visited over the past year or so,” Lapitan said. “I got to the point around my birthday where I was like, we’ve done this for a year and we’ve helped out a lot of people, so I thought OK, I’m going to do this big cupcake thing and then I’m done.”

It was not until the last stop of the cupcake adventure that Lapitan realized the impact that her organization had.

Her and her sister made one last stop under the bridge at James and Sixth Avenue in Seattle. They began handing out the last box of cupcakes to the homeless sleeping under the bridge. Lapitan approached a young man sleeping on a cardboard box and offered him a cupcake. She introduced myself and told him it was her birthday. He responded by wishing her happy birthday. As she began to tell him her story and why she was out handing out cupcakes on the cold night in Seattle, he became distracted, searching through his pile of things.

“I became frustrated because he wasn’t listening to me,” she said, adding, “But as I got towards the end of my story, he pulled out a bag of microwave popcorn and he handed it to me and again said, happy birthday. I was just beside myself.”

The bag of microwave popcorn now sits in a framed shadowbox on her desk as a reminder for why she continues to push forward with Heroes for the Homeless.

“That young man has no idea how he changed my life. If I thought for a moment that I couldn’t do this anymore, it wasn’t then,” she explained. “With that one simple gesture he completely changed my life because that’s what it means to be generous. No conditions at all.”

Three months later, a Napa Family Winery walked into Lapitan’s life and decided they wanted the funds raised from the Seattle Food and Wine Experience to go towards Heroes for the Homeless.

“This money will allow me to buy wool socks instead of cotton socks and to buy tents, tarps, and blankets. Things my clients need to survive outside,” Lapitan said. “I couldn’t ask for more.”

For more information on Heroes for the Homeless visit www.heroesforthehomeless.com. To purchase tickets for the Seattle Food and Wine Experience visit www.seattlefoodandwineexperience.com.

Lindsay Larin can be reached at llarin@bellevuereporter.com or at 425-453-4602.