I'm surrounded and I love it!

I’m surrounded by Marys—literally! We have so many volunteers named Mary at Hope House that it gets confusing trying to keep track of them. What they all have in common is a wonderful dedication to serving those in need, and in this they share with all the non-Mary volunteers. We have the most wonderful volunteers ever! Let me share:

· “Little” Mary and Mary-Lou both take pride in “culling” the racks each week to keep the clothing choices up to date. They remove items that have been hanging there for quite a while, they check for missed stains and buttons and just generally keep our racks manageable.

· Mary W. loves to show new clients around and help them find everything they need. She has also cross-trained for several jobs at Hope House, so she is valuable everywhere!

· Mary S. spends hours filing records for us and is eagerly awaiting our new computers so she can do some data entry.

· Mary J. and Mary S. (a different one) both are hard-working sorters and hygiene distributors in our kitchen area.

·“Young” Mary is a college student who never fails to show up when she is home from school to lend a hand—often doing all the running up and down the stairs for us!

· Kathleen works quietly at Hope House in the afternoons and on weekends when we are not open. She is a master organizer with wonderful vision, and helps us keep things working efficiently.

· Ellen has been with us since the start of Hope House and has kept the infant/toddler clothing under control for years. She also works with Kathleen on keeping the upstairs storage under control.

· Don, John, Dick, Ricardo, Bill, Pug and Dianne are our “air traffic controllers”—they work the front desk, keeping track of who is coming and who is going, checking people out, answering questions, keeping the coffee and cookies replenished and just generally being the center of our daily life!

· Then there are the “shed pixies”, Ray and Jeanne, who keep our food bags packed, our donation bin emptied and just keep the storage shed organized—love them!

· Bonnie, Tim, Chuck, Ann, Jan, Judy and Carole have special jobs listening to those in need of financial assistance and discerning who and how they can help. God bless them for this ministry!

· Lynnette, Carole, Shirley, Ann, Chris, Sarah, Becky, Chuck, Maura, Evelyn, Kathy, Caroline, Keegan, Liz and more that I have probably forgot to name, all work very, very hard in our kitchen area, sorting donations, handing out food, hygiene and diapers to a never ending stream of clients. We couldn’t do it without them!

· Pat and Judy help with intake, as well as Becky, Mary S. and Bill. This is the position that takes time and sensitivity and it is not for everybody, but these volunteers make it look easy.

· Paul stops by Hope House a couple mornings a week to vacuum and empty the garbage for us. I can’t tell you how much it means to come in to a clean work area!

· The Street Outreach team—a unique and totally focused group of wonderful volunteers who go out in the dark and cold to bring food to the homeless where they live; Theresa, Bonnie, Sharon, Roland, Christine and Phil—you rock!

Speaking of the Street Outreach team—their backup crews who make lunches each week make it possible, both the team at Assumption and the wonderful Sandwich Brigade at St. Paul’s. Wonderful, wonderful people—each one.

Here are a few examples of how these volunteers make things nicer at Hope House:

· I come around the corner past a window where we often hang clothing. In the window I see adorable coordinated outfits; complete with tastefully arranged scarves, all in green (St. Patrick’s Day is coming). Someone has made sure we look like a store for our clients.

· I discover packages of cookies stored at the front desk—because “it sometimes takes too long to go back to the kitchen when people are hungry”. Enough said.

· Even with lines of people waiting, I cannot convince the kitchen crew that they don’t have to give people an option of what fragrance of shampoo they want—they like to make sure the clients get to choose.

· The lunch packing crews for the Street Outreach are uncompromising in their dedication to a quality lunch—they make what they would serve to Christ—fresh meat and cheese sandwiches, homemade cookies and fresh fruit!

I wouldn’t trade any of them for anything! I love them all.

Long enough?

Can someone tell me why January seems like the longest month of the year? I reasonably know that there are 6 other months with 31 days in them, but January seems to last foreverrrrrrrrr. Perhaps it is the cold, the gray, the cloudy, the letdown after the frantic pace of the holidays; but for whatever reason, it seems like it will never end.

Certainly that is true to our clients, many of whom come in 2-3 times during January, and often are completely tapped out by the 30th. Some of them come just to get out of the house; some come to see if they can get more blankets and warm clothing so that they can turn their heat down to save money. I think many come for the warmth: both the physical warmth of the building (and the coffee) and the warmth of human interaction. During this, the coldest time of the year, clients seem to chat with each other more, spend more time sharing resources and stories. The only other time we see this much interaction is during the middle of summer, when everyone feels relaxed and we spill out the doors to sit and chat on the grass.

It is when I see young mothers showing off their babies with pride, toddlers playing cars, men talking sports and cars, that I am so glad we rearranged our waiting area into a “living” area! Hope House community times are precious to us and part of our mission.

So back to the loooonnnggg month of January—I pride myself on my ability to treat people with warmth and love. It's why I work where I work! But sometimes towards the end of a long, hard month I find myself less than charitable in my interactions, less patient with those who are demanding and not as friendly as I like to be. I had one of these days recently and I did not like it—I told my volunteers that it was not a good day for me to be there.

Just when I thought I was going to have to go home upset over a wasted opportunity of a day, three things happened:

1. A homeless gentleman whom we have been working with forever, and who had fallen off the wagon a few months ago, came in. He did not want to talk to me, would not look at me, but just asked if he could have some food and socks. I replied that of course he could. Then I told him I miss him—not just once, but 12 times in the 5 minutes he was with me. He went out to get his food, and on his way out the door, he looked me in the eye and said “I miss you, too.”

2. A young woman came in who needed help with a bus ticket to Seattle for a seminar that would help her get into college. She has been homeless, recently housed by another agency, and all she needed was $9 more for the round trip ticket. We had no way to get her a check for that amount that day, but while I was talking to her, the volunteers had gathered up the money from among them, along with a packed lunch to eat on the way. She sat in the chair in my office and leaned forward, sobbing into her hands. She said she couldn’t believe we believed in her.

3. One of my long time clients, a young mother, came in to proudly show off her newest bundle of joy—the most beautiful little girl, who I was able to hold (those are the perks of this job!!).

So my day, and my month, ended better than I had anticipated; and I haven’t even mentioned several “Godshots” we had in the last week.

That’s another posting.