After Busy Winter, Warming Place Thanks Island Community

To the editor: The Warming Place completed our second season of operations on April 27^th. We served double the number of unhoused and inadequately housed guests than during our first. We want to publicly thank our generous hosts at the Summer Street Church for welcoming us into their building and the Rotary Club for their support. Thanks to individual donors and grants from the Community Foundation, Sconset Chapel, First Congregational Church, Rockland Trust, and Cape Cod 5 we served 640 meals from November through April in partnership with The Green and Kitty Murtagh’s, and from January through March held Wednesday Night we served 40 dinners in partnership with St. Paul’s Suppers. We also appreciate the generous help from the Knights of Columbus and the Seconds Shop.

The Warming Place is an all-volunteer run program, and we want to thank every person who delivered a meal, made the coffee, or spent a few hours in conversation with our guests. Whether you came one time or every week, your participation helped make the season a success.

In addition to our daytime program, we also paid for a total of 240 overnight stays at a local inn during qualified weather emergencies. Unfortunately, we often did not have enough beds to accommodate everyone who needed a place to stay.

Our top priority is to have a 7-night per-week overnight shelter next winter. The inn program is not sustainable as the number of guests increases. Right now, we have a commitment from one location to host us for a minimum of 3 nights. We will work all spring and summer to find a location for the remaining nights and implement this plan. Please reach out to us at ACKHomelessnessTeam@gmail.com if you can help with funding or an overnight location.

Joining me on the steering committee are Vincent DeBaggis, Deborah DuBois, Kaley Kokomoor, Holly McGowan, Elise Norton, and Mark White.

Sue Mynttinen
ACK Homelessness Team