by Peggy L. DeBlois | photography by Jose Leiva

Dan Campbell has had a long, storied career as a track and ski athlete and coach. He is well-known in our community, having worked in the Auburn school system from 1984-2015. While he considers his past a thread that he has followed to today, he says for the first time in his life, he is running on purpose.

RUNNING OUR STREETS

Campbell heads out at about 4:30 am every morning to visit his friends.

His homeless friends.

He starts in Auburn, at Chestnut Park, then moves on to Bonney Park, crosses the Androscoggin, and works his way up to the tree streets in Lewiston.

“I just check in with them, see what I can do for them in the moment,” says Campbell. “They know my name; I know their names.”

When Campbell first started interacting with the homeless, he said they were hesitant. It took several visits, and the majority just observed him talking to one or two people and tested him by asking for coffee or a pack of cigarettes. Eventually, they embraced him. Now, he is inundated by their need, getting about 50 calls a day from his friends.

It’s cold – can you get me an extra blanket?

Can you find me a place to sleep tonight?

Do you know someone who can give me a job?

I’m sick.

I’m hungry.

I don’t know where to go.

People are fighting here. I’m afraid.

“These are people, just like you and me,” says Campbell. “Sure, they have phones, usually those simple pre-paid models, or one from their life before living on the streets. And some of them have cars – because that’s where they sleep at night and keep their belongings.”

He says he is frustrated by people theorizing that our fellow citizens panhandling at intersections are part of some organized conspiracy. He challenges anyone who believes that to call him.

“I’ll bring you to the alleyways where they sleep,” says Campbell.

According to Campbell, most of his friends are on some type of disability or social security, and many are addicted to drugs that they were initially prescribed for an injury. Many more struggle with mental illness.

“Lewiston and Auburn are in the midst of a housing crisis,” says Campbell. “Landlords know they can get a significantly higher rent now, so they are searching for and creating reasons to evict people. People are dying on our streets – no one in the cities wants to tell you that, but it’s true – I’ve seen it.”

Campbell says he has helped about 30 women get off the streets, into rehab, or into an apartment with a job, and there are at least three times this amount that want to be off the streets. He says seeing the women living in the parks and along the railroad tracks is the worst for him. He knows they are dehumanized – victims of sex trafficking and other abuses.

Campbell tells the story of Jason the Protector. At 31 years old, Jason has lived on the streets since leaving an extremely abusive home when he turned 17. He is a large, imposing man and a self-appointed protector of women who are new on the streets. Whenever Campbell approaches a woman experiencing homelessness, Jason is there, hovering in the background like a bodyguard.

These friends experiencing homelessness have warned Campbell to be careful. Desperate times can make people experiencing homelessness into liars and thieves. Many of them say they can’t have a better life because they ruined the life they had. They believe there is no hope for them. Campbell admits helping his homeless friends is exhausting, frustrating, overwhelming, and scary. His wife used to be at his side on his visits, but she won’t go anymore. He’s not sure how much longer he can keep it up.

Campbell understands his friends’ desperate attempts at survival. He’s never been homeless, but he has faced hopelessness.

RUNNING ON FAITH

In 2019, Campbell found himself in a hospital bed at Tufts Medical Center, receiving the news that he had an incurable cancer. It was 9 p.m. on a Sunday night, and he asked to see a priest. That priest asked him a simple question: what do you want?

Campbell said he wanted to experience heaven on earth.

They prayed together through the night. Campbell made a covenant with God, saying if God got him through this cancer, he would do whatever He asked. In the morning, his doctor arrived with a second doctor – they had found a way to extend his life. The next three years were full of hospital stays, treatments, surgeries, and chemotherapy. Campbell says he held on to hope through it all.

In 2022, Campbell knew it was time to make good on his covenant with God. He wasn’t sure what to do, so he started walking the streets in the early morning and late at night and saw the camps, the individuals. He had found his purpose.

“I’ve always had a very strong faith,” says Campbell. “It brought me from day one to here. I always had it but I didn’t know how to tap into it.”

Campbell says God saved him once before, back in 1984. He says he was a drunk and a cocaine addict despite being an elite athlete and, at the time, a coach. He thought his addictions were his secret. Then, he learned the kids he was coaching thought the best season-end gift for him was a case of beer.

“Needless to say, I skipped the year-end celebration,” says Campbell with tears in his eyes. I cried for hours, asking myself how I could be a role model for them while hiding behind this lie.”

Campbell climbed Davis Mountain and says he argued with God about his addiction.

“By the time I walked back down that hill, I never took another drug again,” recounts Campbell. “God gave me that strength, but He told me that I needed to help kids. That was our deal. It changed me.”

Following this experience, Campbell went back to school and became a substance abuse counselor. He says his life became about the kids he was coaching and the ones he could protect from the people who were hurting them. Campbell had a very traumatic upbringing himself, so he recognized when kids needed help. Over the years, Campbell took in hundreds of kids who otherwise may have ended up on the streets.

RUNNING OUT OF TIME

Campbell believes he is running out of time, but he’s not going to break his covenant with God. He’s happy to have support from businesses and individuals, noting Roopers Beverage and Redemption recently gave him a van and a large donation. He uses the van to deliver supplies to his homeless friends, and the check went to the First Universalist Church of Auburn for its shelter.

Campbell also commends the cities of Lewiston and Auburn for finally working together, pooling their money and resources to open warming shelters. He says both city managers are committed to developing a comprehensive plan moving forward. He says every church, social agency, and non-profit in our community has different answers to the problem, and he hopes the cities bring all these organizations together to work collaboratively.

According to Campbell, 90% of people who say they want to help do not follow through. His advice is not financially driven.

“Stop and treat them like human beings – talk to them,” entreats Campbell. “The best thing a person can give is their time—get to know these people and you will know what to do.”

If you’d like to help in some way, contact Dan Campbell at 207-713-3939, or danian99@icloud.com.