Well friends, here we find ourselves entering 2022! What a year of change this has been for us as an organization. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for what you have done to help us grow. All our roles, no matter how great or small, are a vital part of our continued success.
All about the holidays
We made it through another holiday season successfully! We had quite a spread for Christmas. For appetizers we had tapenade on dill crackers, salmon salad zucchini rolls, cranberry glazed smoked sausage bites, baked potato rounds with pimento cheese, and chili cheese dip with corn chips. Our soup course was a turkey posole with all the toppings and our main dish was enchiladas (donated by Adriana’s Mexican Food in Old Town), tacos (donated by the people from Bahai Faith) beans and rice. And dessert was a variety of pies and a sheet cake (also donated by Bahai Faith). Roxanne and Jim from Bahai Faith came to volunteer on Christmas as did Dustin (who is the Regional Manager for SNAP fitness and just wanted to do a little good on Christmas). We had a lot of fun chatting and visiting with the center guests and watched A Christmas Story on an endless loop. A special thanks to the knitters and crocheters of the valley for donating enough hats and scarves and to volunteers who made sure everyone received a gift. It was incredible to have the support to make a great day for all. We had enough soup for another day! The new year was very quiet.
Participation this month
We saw a total of 626 people use the day center in December and 410 spent the night. We saw 15 new faces this month. Of course, many are the transient unsheltered which come, stay a few weeks or months, and then disappear but some have recently fallen into homelessness for a variety of reasons I managed to place an elderly, disabled female vet with US Vets in a program that will house her up to 2 years with the possibility of further placement depending on her condition and how her needs change. We have developed a great relationship with US Vets, they are a very good organization.
Volunteers
The ladies from Spectrum continue to come each week. They have been incredibly helpful going through the MOUNTAINS of donations we have received during December. The program supervisor did allow us to take a small gift to each of the ladies (a little lotion and soap that was donated but we don’t have that many women) for Christmas. We also gained a new Monday volunteer which is helpful, Monday’s can be busy for me most weeks.
Out on the town
I have been asked to speak at the Networking for Solutions meeting this month and we will be participating in the PIT count which is taking place on January 25 and requires me to make the trip to Prescott for planning at least once this month since Catholic Charities and we are the primary people working the east side of Yavapai county. A bit of good news for those of you that have seen my pile of sanitizer and masks, we can donate some to the PIT count volunteers since they will be using it in the field.
All for now,
Rhonda Bishop
Executive Director