VIP Impact: Clean Up Project at the Guerneville Winter Shelter

Here is a great story from one of this year's service projects coordinated by VIP Leader Annabele Grace!

 

Volunteers at the Guerneville Winter Shelter. VIP Annabele Grace is pictured second from the left at the top of the stairs.

On February 5th, Sebastopol Community Church Youth Group and several client volunteers participated in a service project at St. Hubert's Hall led by West County Community Services VIP Leader, Annabele Grace. The high school students, several community volunteers and shelter clients scrubbed and cleaned, dusted and organized every inch of the building used for the last 3 months as Guerneville's Winter Shelter for the homeless. The group was also led (by shelter clients) on a trash patrol throughout the areas surrounding the shelter, including Main St. and the Guerneville Plaza. Kids, adult volunteers and homeless themselves worked side by side with an enthusiasm that was inspiring.
Client volunteer Justin Miller remarked: "I am thankful for the opportunity to do something useful and positive in my community. I was feeling down (because of not having work) and today I felt I did something worthwhile."
Another client volunteer said, "I am grateful I have a warm place to sleep every night thanks to the shelter. This is one way to show my appreciation."
"We hoped to leave the facility in even better condition than before we started the lease." said another volunteer, who asked to remain unidentified. (St. Catherine's church opted not to renew the lease at St. Hubert's Hall through March. The Winter Shelter moved after this project to the Guerneville Veterans Memorial Hall, where it functioned through March 31.)