cold-weather shelter

DUE to dangerous temperatures this weekend, in collaboration with the Way Station, White Horse Addiction Center, and other agencies,  Nativity Lutheran Church is opening its Fellowship Hall over the weekend as a cold-weather shelter. This shelter will serve all of Mt Washington Valley.    WEEKEND: From Friday afternoon –  Monday evening, Nativity Lutheran Church’s lower hall will be used as an emergency warming shelter. It will be open day and night over the weekend.If you are interested in helping out as a volunteer, please let REV GAIL DOKTOR know by responding to this message: CALL or TEXT Gail’s cell: 978.273.0308.Indicate when you might be available to volunteer and provide contact info (full name, email, and phone number to expedite contact and scheduling). 

An alert has been sent to emergency responders and agencies serving vulnerable populations, so people at-risk have the option to seek shelter in North Conway at the Nativity Lutheran Church. Although the Way Station, White Horse, Tri-County Cap, and Carroll County’s designated emergency response team cannot predict how many people may need they facility, they have direct knowledge of some clients who could benefit from having a place.    HOW YOU CAN HELP: 

• If you are a person who is vaccinated, healthy, and to whom COVID poses a low risk, we invite you to be a support volunteer. 
  
  Each shift (mornings/afternoons/overnights) will have two types of volunteers: supervisors who have experience working with homeless people (hese people work with the agencies that are cooperating to open the shelter). Needed: support volunteers the position we are inviting you to consider filling.  
  
  Support volunteers will help run things. This includes being the person to hand out coffee and food (we do not want lots of people touching the coffee pot or serving utensils), making sure that the bathrooms get cleaned with regularity, keeping an eye open for things that need to happen.
   
• Meals are being provided by volunteers from local churches, including Jackson Community Church. 
   
• Cots, toiletries, etc, are coming from emergency response supplies and inventories in place from local agencies.   

Nativity Lutheran reminds us: With the Omicron variant running rampant, opening this shelter is a fairly risky thing to do. We will try to mitigate that risk, but even so, being a support volunteer will be hazardous. If you hope to volunteer, please allow for this increased risk by using extra caution in the days after your shift.   If you are interested in helping out as a volunteer, please let REV GAIL DOKTOR by phone: CALL or TEXT Gail’s cell number (not the church’s land line). Or email jcchurch@jacksoncommunitychurch.org with SHELTER VOLUNTEER in subject line. Indicate when you might be available to volunteer and provide contact info (full name, email, and phone number to expedite contact and scheduling).    We are grateful to be a part of a community that cares enough to suggest opening such a shelter and quickly organizing its activities.