At the emergency warming center in Newark’s Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, everyone is given a name tag, guests and volunteers alike. It is the only center of its kind in Licking County, where unsheltered people can stay the night in a safe, warm refuge from the cold with volunteers who care.
But the strictly volunteer-run site cannot open unless enough people step up to pitch in and help run it.
The upcoming weather forecast is grim. Most nights in the next week will be close to or below freezing, and a snowstorm on Sunday is expected to leave up to ten inches of snow on the ground, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
“A large, long-duration winter storm is expected to bring widespread heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain,” according to an emergency alert from the Wilmington, Ohio NWS office. “An Arctic front will bring frigid temperatures and gusty winds that will lead to dangerous wind chills.”
So for eight consecutive days—Friday, Jan. 23 through Saturday, Jan. 31—with temperatures dropping below 10 degrees daily, the center needs to be open for those seeking refuge from the cold.
It would be a record number of days for the center to be open, and a record number of volunteers will be needed.
A minimum of six to eight volunteers are needed to “activate” the center, and an extra eight to ten are needed for the intake shift. When activated, the center is open overnight from 5 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. The incoming cold streak would mean over a week of staffing for this schedule.
Since the warming center opened in the winter of 2019, the volume of guests has increased exponentially. Now, volunteers are stationed at the front doors for intake, in the sanctuary, the basement and in the fellowship hall for meal times.
Volunteer coordinator Emma Chapman anticipates more than 40 people will shelter at the warming center each night during the upcoming storm.
“We can’t guarantee that we’re going to be activated until I can get the minimum number of volunteers,” Chapman said. “That’s such a tricky balance because we want to tell people as soon as we can, but at the same time I don’t want them to show up and have the doors be locked.”
Kristen Rose, a teacher during the day and volunteer lead at night, volunteered two of three nights when the warming center opened last. This next round, she’s volunteering four nights to keep up with the center’s growing need for assistance.
“When I first started four years ago, everything was in the basement, and we were 18 to 20 people. Everybody was in the basement. We’ve now gotten so large that we’ve had to expand to the rest of the church.”
Read more: Licking County’s volunteer-operated emergency warming shelter struggling to meet growing need
Last winter around this time, they were open for a record of six consecutive days. Volunteers were being confirmed just an hour before activation. This time around, the matter is even more urgent.
As the only low-barrier warming center in the county, no one is turned away at the door. During intake, guests don’t require background checks or IDs, and after filling out a brief form and surrendering any weapons, they are assigned a cot and meal ticket. Breakfast and dinner are provided by Licking Memorial Health Systems.
For most of the night, volunteers are available to help out when needed and some spend time conversing with the guests.
“It can get chaotic, but more than that, it’s a lot of learning on the job and having that open-mindedness to work with a group of people you haven’t worked with before, both volunteers and guests,” Chapman said.
Last year was the first time the center had ever served a family, Chapman said. Volunteers have also noted an increase in older individuals and individuals with complex health needs that the center is not equipped to handle. These are indicators of the great need in the community, she said, both for more services and more caring volunteers.
Aside from social media and the news, the warming center relies on word of mouth to reach unsheltered people. Some people get to and from the center via Licking County Transit, which has a bus stop right in front of the church on West Main St. and routes going both ways.
On days when the emergency warming center is activated, the drop-in center— located in Fellowship Hall in the same building— will extend their hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and will be open weekends so that guests don’t have to wait outside in freezing temperatures. Donna Gibson, director of the Drop-In, expects to work overtime with the coming snow.
Nancy Welu, who also volunteers with the Newark Homeless Outreach and the Drop-In, has gotten to know the guests who frequent the warming center. “That’s what volunteering to me is all about,” she said. “They’re just people.”
On Christmas Eve a few years ago, Welu found enough volunteers to open the center for the holidays. She brought in an old boombox and 30-year-old CDs to play Christmas music for the guests.
“Over Christmas, we had more people come out and volunteer, I think because it was Christmas. It was the first time we’d done it – we’d stayed open 24/7 several days in a row.”
But now weeks after the holiday season, it will take everything they’ve got to staff and open both the warming center and the drop in for over a week straight.
Interested volunteers for the warming center should contact Emma Chapman at echapman@unitedwaylc.org. The most needed shifts from Friday, January 23 to Saturday, January 31 are the following:
4:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Intake
4:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. Food Preparation
8:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. Late Shift
12:30 a.m. – 5:30 a.m. Overnight
5:30 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Closer/Clean Up
Mia Fischel 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.