Homeless for a night

I would swear I blogged about this earlier, but now I can't find it. I wrote this up for a work/life balance blog at work:

During the holiday shutdown in December, I stayed overnight as a volunteer in the cold-weather shelter the Corvallis Homeless Shelter Coalition established at the Westside Community Church. This was the second year that our church had participated. Each group would provide two volunteers each night for a week. The volunteers would check people in, help with food and medication, and resolve any issues that came up. One volunteer would spend the night as backup to the paid staff person.

It was eye opening experience for me. There is a wide range of people who use the shelter, and in general, they all seemed quite appreciative of what was provided. It seems a shame it only operates during the winter, but I think that is all the Coalition can manage.

Here is a link to one of the GT's articles:
http://gtconnect.com/articles/2009/03/16/news/community/7aaa02_shelter.txt