With temperatures expected to drop into the single digits this weekend, the Licking County Warming Center task force is appealing to the public for volunteers to operate the facilities.
The center opens when temperatures drop below 10 degrees, a threshold that will be met Saturday and Sunday night when the National Weather Service says the temperature will be between 5 and 10 degrees with a wind-chill value of 4 below zero.
Read More: Icy winter blast expected to deliver up to 6 inches across central Ohio and a wind chill of 6 below
“It’s going to get really cold, and the only way we can have an emergency shelter at this point is if we have enough volunteers,” Deb Dingus, executive director of Licking County United Way said.
Dingus encourages people to volunteer because the warming center saves lives, keeping people from dying from exposure, she said.
“That’s why it’s vital to our community,” she said.
The shelter is at 592 W. Main Street in Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Those wishing to volunteer should contact volunteer coordinator Emma Chapman at (740) 345-6685 ext. 301 or echapman@unitedwaylc.org.
The warming center operates through volunteers and support from Licking Memorial Hospital, the Red Cross, local service providers and community volunteers.
This winter will be the eighth for Newark’s warming center. Last winter, the center was open for 17 nights, serving more than 60 people on many of those evenings.
That included several people over the age of 70, people in wheelchairs, individuals with pets and families, said Jeff Gill, a member of the Licking County Warming Center Task Force, in speaking to The Reporting Project in December 2024.
“It’s not what a lot of people expect, which is a whole bunch of middle-aged guys living in tents by the river who come to our place when it gets cold,” Gill said. “It is a mix of people who are waiting for the next retirement check, people caught between apartments, families, couples. It runs the gamut.”
Read more: Licking County’s volunteer-operated emergency warming shelter struggling to meet growing need
“We are here to do one thing: Keep people from dying,” said Nancy Welu, a volunteer with Newark Homeless Outreach and a member of the warming center task force.
According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service, hypothermia deaths can occur in temperatures as warm as 40 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature remains in the 40-degree range or below, unhoused and unsheltered people are in danger.
The warming center is open to all, no questions asked. There are no background checks, restrictions on pets, or judgment for those struggling with substance use.
Welu said the volunteers believe in creating a welcoming environment for all.
“We aren’t going to treat you differently from a friend,” Welu told The Reporting Project. “We need to treat people humanely because not a lot of people are.”
The idea for the warming center emerged in 2018, when local housing advocates, including Welu and Gill, began seeing levels of homelessness they had never witnessed before.
At the time, the only other accessible emergency shelter was the Salvation Army’s emergency center on East Main Street. But that shelter struggled with staffing and accommodating additional people, Gill said earlier this month. As a result, people were sleeping in places like their cars and under bridges.
“We need to do something,” Gill remembers thinking at the time.
Both Welu and Gill stressed that a willingness to listen and not judge is the basic requirement for those who volunteer.
Gill and Welu said the reasons people need shelter are many. There are elderly couples who who can’t afford a hotel, people who have been sleeping in their cars, those with pets and those who need temporary housing.
Gill said that a key task for volunteers is to connect with people and get to know them. He recalls a moment a few years ago when three different men walked into the center. They all sat down at a table and started chatting. These three men of different ages all bonded over growing up playing ball at the same field in Newark. “The worst thing you can do is ignore someone,” Gill said.
Talya Dersu writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.