Volunteers get set for winter shelters
Merry Hendrix of Milton said she is looking forward to helping doing laundry once a week to give a helping hand to others in need.
Roy Okma of Lewes said he wants to again welcome guests seeking shelter overnight from the winter’s cold.
Alan Hark, Okma’s friend and another Lewes resident, said he is ready to assist in any way he can.
The three were among nearly 200 volunteers who attended a Nov. 11 meeting to organize for the annual Code Purple at the Cape homeless shelters that will run from Dec. 1 through March 15.
Code Purple operates a men’s shelter at St. Jude the Apostle Church in Lewes and a women’s shelter at Lutheran Church of Our Savior in Rehoboth Beach. Each can accommodate 14 overnight guests.
Code Purple at the Cape also operates Camp Tharros, a structured tent encampment off Route 1 near Lewes, during the months when the church shelters are closed.
It takes about 300 volunteers to fill the 1,100 work slots needed to run the two winter shelters, including intake assistants, overnight hosts and bus drivers, said Mike Agnew, the Code Purple site director. More are needed, he said.
“We have a very caring community,” Agnew said after leading the nearly two-hour orientation program for volunteers, held in a large room at St. Jude the Apostle Church where beds for the shelter will soon be set up.
“Your view of the world will be different,” he told volunteers. “I like to say that you’re actually meeting the face of Christ in disguise. The meaning in that, 'Whatever you do for the least of mine, you do for me.’ That is very powerful. You can feel the power when you’re sitting there talking to one of our guests and they’re telling you their story. You just have to listen.”
Last year, the men’s shelter was full, and there were another 10 men who needed a place to stay many nights.
The organization received an exception to the 14-person limit, Agnew said, but it required extraordinary measures to take them in and ensure safety, which placed a heavy strain on the volunteers, he said.
Hendrix, Okma and Hark said after Agnew’s presentation that they are glad to help homeless people in the community.
“It could be you,” Hendrix said, adding that many people are at risk of becoming homelessness. “It’s very personal. It’s a wonderful thing to prepare beds for people so they can sleep.”
“I get far more out of it than I put in,” Okma said. “It made me much more attuned to the homeless situation and the realization that they really are people just like you or I.”
“I’m trying to get involved in volunteering for folks who need shelter, folks who need food,” Hark said, noting he moved to the area in January. “There’s a need. There are great people who need help.”
Agnew said he is trying to rely on volunteers to handle more of the burden of operating the shelters, as the effort has worn on him over the years.
But to meet the needs of a growing number of homeless, and as the last meeting attendees drifted off into a chilly late fall night, he was still envisioning an expanded reach for Code Purple.
“I need another shelter,” Agnew said. “And another faith community to run it.”
Kevin Conlon came to the Cape Gazette with nearly 40 years of newspaper experience since graduating from St. Bonaventure University in New York with a bachelor's degree in mass communication. He reports on Sussex County government and other assignments as needed.
His career spans working as a reporter and editor at daily newspapers in upstate New York, including The Daily Gazette in Schenectady. He comes to the Cape Gazette from the Cortland Standard, where he was an editor for more than 25 years, and in recent years also contributed as a columnist and opinion page writer. He and his staff won regional and state writing awards.
Conlon was relocating to Lewes when he came across an advertisement for a reporter job at the Cape Gazette, and the decision to pursue it paid off. His new position gives him an opportunity to stay in a career that he loves, covering local news for an independently owned newspaper.
Conlon is the father of seven children and grandfather to two young boys. In his spare time, he trains for and competes in triathlons and other races. Now settling into the Cape Region, he is searching out hilly trails and roads with wide shoulders. He is a fan of St. Bonaventure sports, especially rugby and basketball, as well as following the Mets, Steelers and Celtics.
