Volunteers and shelter guests gather for meals and social activities in the First Baptist Church of Cornelia fellowship hall. Here, they puzzle over a puzzle during the Arctic blast in January, 2015.
The author of this article, Georgann Haskins, is the Events Coordinator/Reporter for Now Habersham. She volunteered at the shelter and Now Habersham asked her to write about her experience. Here she shares what she learned and felt.
Last week I had the opportunity to volunteer at the cold weather shelter operating out of the First Baptist Church of Cornelia. The shelter opens when the temperatures go below freezing to give those who need a warm place to stay somewhere to go. I found out about the shelter through nowhabersham.com and called the contact phone number to find what I needed to do to help out. I had some small blankets and a few winter hats in my car that I meant to take by the shelter the last time it was opened, but never did. When I heard that the shelter was opened once again, my heart told me that I needed to do more than just drop off some supplies. Having lived through a natural disaster myself, I know that people will give money and supplies to volunteer organizations but trying to get actual volunteers to organize and distribute those supplies is hard to do.
I spoke with the Pastor of First Baptist Cornelia, Eric Spivey, and he put me in touch with Bobby Tyler who helps to coordinate the volunteers and supplies and works long shifts at the shelter himself. I met Bobby at the shelter after I got off work Wednesday night. They were getting ready to serve dinner to anyone who came in for the night. Food has been donated through the Food Bank run by The Torch, another local church with a heart for volunteering. The shelter serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner if there are enough volunteers to prepare and serve the meal. Bobby then introduced me to the volunteers, most are members of First Baptist Cornelia, and explained how the sign-in process works.
If you are a regular reader of Now Habersham, you no doubt read the chilling story Joy Purcell published after her visit to the shelter during our last cold snap. One of the guests turned out to be a wanted man. He allegedly killed a man in Gainesville and was on the run. He was picked up walking along the road by local police and brought to the shelter because he told them he had nowhere to go. This is one of the ways that guests come to be at the shelter. Because of this incident, when a guest now comes in to the shelter, they fill out a form with their personal information and must show a picture ID and then a basic background check is performed by the Cornelia Police Department. If the guest does not have ID, they are escorted to the Police Department, which is conveniently across the street from the church, to be interviewed by police.
The Cornelia Police officers have volunteer hearts, too. They don’t have to take the time to run these background checks or interview shelter guests, but they do. Once the police determine the guest is no threat to the volunteers or other guests at the shelter, they are escorted back to get warm and have a hot meal. The volunteers must sign in and out, as well, and wear a name badge to identify themselves as volunteers. Once a guest has filled out paperwork and presented ID, they may come back to the shelter as often as they need to.
After learning how the shelter was run, I volunteered to come back the next morning at 6 am for the breakfast shift. It is hard to find volunteers for the lunch shift, so the past few days the guests were directed to the Soup Kitchen in Cornelia for their noon meal. The shelter doors are closed if there is no one to sign the guests in and out. The shelter is also open overnight and offers guests a cot or air mattress and blankets provided by the Red Cross. These make-shift beds are set up in the church’s gymnasium. This means that there must be volunteers to stay overnight. Once the breakfast shift volunteers show up, the volunteers who stayed overnight leave to get some much needed rest, if they don’t have to go to work.
There were only three guests at the shelter on Thursday morning, but my fellow volunteer Richard and I were ready to serve them coffee and breakfast. Another Now Habersham reader made two breakfast casseroles and dropped them off. All Richard and I had to do was keep them warm until the guests were ready to eat.
Talking to the guests while we ate was the best part of my volunteer experience. I found out a little about each one and why they needed a warm place to stay. But by the Grace of God I could so be in their shoes! They were very grateful to have a place to go with freezing temperatures outside. I went to work that day with a little more appreciation for all that I have. I went back on Friday morning to serve the four guests who had stayed overnight.
I’m glad that more people did not need the shelter, but I couldn’t help but wonder if there were some out there in the cold who didn’t know there was a place they could go.
The shelter closed on Thursday, Feb. 26, after being open much of the past two weeks. The arctic temperatures, snow and ice have subsided (for now) but the cold weather shelter at First Baptist Church of Cornelia remains on stand-by, ready to help in the event of other extreme weather conditions. I hope more people in our community will also be on stand by, ready to help if and when the need arises again. It takes a volunteer’s heart to work at the shelter but, I assure you, your heart will be blessed.
For more information about volunteering or donating to the cold weather shelter contact First Baptist Church of Cornelia at (706) 778-4412.
