Volunteer and Support the Church Warming Centers
It's -9˚ out right now!
Yesterday (Friday, Jan 12) I responded to the call for volunteers at one of the new “Church Warming Centers”, a program started by (I believe) Christian McKinney <christian@slihc.org> of the Spokane Low Income Housing Consortium with support from Julie Garcia and Jewels Helping Hands as well as Hallie Burchinal of Compassionate Addiction Treatment.
My goal here is to describe my experience to encourage others to volunteer for shifts, or if you can’t do that, to donate to both Jewels Helping Hands (JHH) and Compassionate Addiction Treatment (CAT) to help them provide the staff to cover.
I arrived for my 2-hour shift at 8 am - at the unused (note that the windows are boarded up) New Apostolic Church at 3923 N Cedar St. Entry is through the door on the north side of the building.
Sheryl, one of the JHH staff, met me at the door. Inside there were 8 folds in two large rooms - a day room and a sleeping room. Here’s a photo of the day room -
In addition to some warm clothes, I had brought some magazines and stuff to keep folks occupied as they waited out the freezing temps.
I was never left by myself, there was always at least 1 JHH staffer (and it grew to over 6, with Julie herself making an appearance a bit later) with me. My job was simply to help watch over folks belongings if they or the staff had to go elsewhere - so great to see those black and yellow boxes where they could store their stuff!
So - I drank coffee, ate some McDonald’s McMuffins and hash browns that I got for everyone, and chatted away. Easy duty! I just wish I was a late night person, I know they would be so happy for me to do a night shift.
Everyone was kind and there was sort of a bomb shelter vibe - we were all hunkered down and just surviving, yet there was a camaraderie developing. JHH staff were there at all times, delivering folks from various places around the city and taking people to appointments downtown, etc.
Lerria Schuh, Executive Director of the Smith-Barbieri fund, came in at 10 am to take over for me. And while I was there, a couple of people dropped off clothing and bedding to help out.
I took note that the day before, a JHH volunteer had gone up and down the streets of the adjoining neighborhood, explaining what was going on - and the neighbors were overall supportive. Some even brought in clothing and supplies to help out.
This church alone has added a solid 18 spots to our cold weather inventory. With Mayor Brown re-opening the Cannon St. Shelter, and now with these additional shelter spaces, let us hope that we can keep any of our fellow citizens from dying out in the cold.
Dan
We must have just missed you, Dan. Delivered a load of blankets and comforters from Covenant United Methodist Church yesterday morning to New Apostolic. It was nice and warm in there and very organized. Volunteers helped us unload our bags. I would like to mention that Pastor John Edmondson and Christian McKinney originated this idea of using church buildings this winter, even though in the past it has been suggested without success. I hope people will feel excited about showing up to volunteer to cover these shifts and support Jewels and CAT who are doing a terrific job! We need places where people can be brought indoors who can't function in a group setting such as these. Their mental/emotional needs leave them stuck in order to avoid having to deal with groups of people. We hope the concept of churches sharing their resources will continue to grow in the Spokane area!