Editor:
White Rock’s Extreme Weather Shelter volunteers – 23 of them – gathered for a meal last week to a great round of applause for their devotion over the winter in providing hospitality to our most vulnerable neighbours.
Some volunteers were from First United Church, some from other churches and the community.
The shelter was open at First United for 64 nights between November and March.
Thirty-seven different individuals stayed, the majority men but some women. From one to 12 people were guests, with the average number of six to eight per night.
At the shelter, we provide a safe, warm, hospitable night’s sleep during the coldest of weather conditions, preventing frostbite or even death.
The volunteers do a remarkable job. They get up at 6 a.m. to provide for our guests and turn up late into the evening with a hot meal, some clean clothes as required, and a friendly familiar face.
One volunteer, on a cold winter’s day, went to the recycling depot because she knew that’s where one of our guests/friends turns up. She wanted to be sure that he knew we were open. Others cook and set out a nutritious stew.
Dick Avison does a terrific job of co-ordinating the shelter along with Peter Fedos, manager of Hyland House, our partner and advocate with BC Housing – which helps to fund the program.
We want to say thanks so much to the community for your interest and support. You ask about the shelter, donate bedding and clothing and have donated money and materials this winter for the building of a shower at First United Church. The shower is almost complete and will be launched in the fall, along with a new biweekly hot-meal program for low-income people at First United Church.
It has taken some years for people in the Peninsula to “get it” that the poor and homeless actually live here and are our neighbours. We can be encouraged that so many people attended the all-candidates forum on affordable housing during the civic elections in November, and that all of the candidates dedicated themselves to moving forward the city’s Affordable Housing Strategy.
It is one thing to care for people in their vulnerability; it is another thing to develop programs, strategies and structural solutions to long-term needs of ordinary people: for safe and adequate housing, for meaningful services to address addictions and mental illness and for basic nutritious accessible food.
Together, we can make a difference. Thanks for your interest. Thanks for your help. Thanks for your ongoing awareness of the needs of your neighbours.
Thanks for being community together.
Rev. Joan McMurtry, First United Church, White Rock