A Warmer Winter

ByAndrea Reed

MDI SiteHUS 352

• Many times parents need to face a hard decision: whether to pay their rent or other bills, or purchase their children warm winter apparel.

• There are 16,400,000 children in this country that go without the basic necessities.

• Winter in Maine can be very harsh and many children do not have access to warm winter apparell.

Advocacy Statement

I will collect warmer winter wear for disadvantaged families and donate them to The Emmaus Homeless Shelter in Ellsworth, Maine.

To do this, I will need to contact Nicole Gulowsen, the life manager at The Emmaus Homeless Shelter.

I will put up ads that reflect the need for such a project

and ask for community involvement. When I receive donated items, they will be washed before they are presented.

Collecting

I began my project with talking to Nicole Gulowsen at the Emmaus Homeless Shelter. She was more than happy to accept anything that I could produce from our community.

The Emmaus Homeless Shelter has a clothing room, in which the public can come in and select items of needed clothing for free.

• The Emmaus Shelter opened its doors to its first guests on February 25, 1992.

• The average number of shelter guests each year for the past 20 years has been an astonishing 350.

• Emmaus offers referrals, assistance with fuel and electric payments, holiday baskets, Christmas gifts, fresh produce, clothing, school supplies and boxes of food 20,500 times per month

I chose to donate to the Emmaus Homeless Shelter because in the Spring of 2011, I completed my practicum with them. They were very generous and my heart grew very fond of the people (staff and residents) there. I was able to see life in a different perspective and knew that I would always want to be there to help if I was able to.

The Emmaus Homeless ShelterEllsworth, Maine

The Emmaus Homeless Shelter is a 22 bed facility which can accommodate four families, six single women, and five single men, ages 18 and up. The Shelter operates (24) twenty four hours a day, 365 days a year.

The Clothing Room

One way to help the homeless and those struggling in our society is to donate used or new clothing to the shelter.

Facebook

I then published an event on Facebook called A Warmer Winter, in which I invited people to donate gently used or new jackets, snow pants, hats, mittens/gloves, and boots.

Facebook

I placed ads in barter, swap, and sell pages on Facebook asking the public to donate and informing that the items were to be donated to the Emmaus Homeless Shelter.

FlyerNEEDED:Gently used or new winter jackets, snow pants, boots, hats, and mittens/gloves to be donated to the Emmaus Homeless Shelter in Ellsworth for disadvantaged families.If you have anything that has been outgrown or is collecting dust and you would like to see them go to someone who needs it, please call Andrea at 207-610-XXXX

Calls/Messages

I received several calls from people wanting to donate .

I also received messages through Facebook from people wanting to donate.

Unfortunately, there were quite a few donations that were cancelled for unknown reasons.

Donations

Donations

Donations

After receiving the donations, I washed them and packed them up.

I dropped off the donated items. They were very grateful for the donation and said that the items would be gone in no time.

What I learned

I learned that it feels very good to bring something together to help others. I also learned that through these difficult times, there are many who are willing to give to others, but just can’t due to financial strain. I did not receive an abundance of donations, but I feel good about what I was able to produce, because in these times, every little bit helps.

Resources

• The Emmaus Shelter• www.operationwarm.org