Lucky

Photo by Ruthie Krager

The years show on his face. His smile is only noticed with a second look. His bed and likely all his belongings are there over his shoulder. Trust me when I say that he's told us how grateful he is to be there. Usually every bed is full like this every night so he is one of the lucky ones.
Some don't get in and mornings like last Tuesday are why this is serious.

This has been an amazing year for the Samaritan House. We opened a new building, this came with repairs unforseen. The economic downturn not only affected our budget but it brought a whole wave of people needing our help. Truth is, we are coming in to the end of the year in the red but fully confident that we've maintained hospitality to the least of these.
One great way to help is coming Friday, December 18th. Fresh Life Radio is presenting a Christmas movie double feature in Fresh Life Church's newly opened Liberty Theater. At 5 pm at the Liberty Theater there will be a showing of Veggie Tales Saint Nicholas: A Tale of Christmas Giving and at 7 pm It's A Wonderful Life. It is a paper goods drive for the Samaritan House to offset the shelter expense of paper goods i.e. TP, paper towels, napkins etc. Admission to the movies is a donation of a paper goods item.
Several reasons to go... to support the shelter, your curiosity about the historic Liberty Theater, the chance to see a great classic film on the big screen again or simply your love for talking vegetables.

Thanksgiving Day Recap

It was great fun and hard work. We fed a lot of people and kept a community tradition going. We fed around 640 people and delivered 347 meals. Video coverage by KAJ-TV here.

Here are a few pictures of the Sykes Thanksgiving Day Dinner:

Planning to Address Montana's Homelessness

Sitting in this meeting trying to address Montana's homelessness issue, it's a planning session. The federal grant source has let us all know that the grant that they previously administered will be changing significantly. The analogy that is being used is that the ground underneath our feet has just shifted.
Now, I've only had the opportunity to be in a couple earthquakes, where I live in Montana there aren't many big earthquakes. When I did experience an earthquake I remember thinking it was odd and looking for something that was solid and unmoving to orient myself to.
The difference here is that we are all moving through this earthquake together, only able to move forward addressing Montana's homelessness together. Renaming previous committees, involving other groups and organizations, setting new schedules, processes and structure. People are asking, "What are our constants? What is not changing? What will still exist after the dust settles?"
Carmen Gonzalez, Team Lead for Projects for Asssistance in Transition from Homelessness, MHC - Billings, had this to say about this process, "Yesterday and today's meetings reflect the strength, courage, dedication and determination of Montana's efforts to meet, share and brainstorm in order to impact lives. The power that comes with collaboration and carries on the Tradition of Compassion."
Hank Hudson, Economic Security Branch Manager, DPHHS, summarized this process by saying, "Reducing and ending homelessness is a vision that brings Montana communities together. Keeping the best parts of the Continuum of Care for Homelessness process alive and getting positioned for the future brings the best qualities of these dedicated programs to the forefront."
We are remaining focused on what is constant, sticking together and learning about the shifting nature of addressing homelessness. This process reflects Samaritan House's committment to serving the homeless of the Falthead Valley and Montana's committment to homeless Montanans.

Sykes Thanksgiving Day Dinner

Photo by Eric Melzer

Doug and Judy Wise began the Sykes Thanksgiving Day Dinner in 1982 as a way to offer a free Thanksgiving meal for the people of Kalispell. It was always very well attended, estimates are that nearly 1,100 meals were served last year.
Sykes Restaurant and Grocery Store is closed this year so we will be hosting the festivities at the Samaritan House Administrative Building, the former armory on Meridian Rd.

Sykes Thanksgiving Day Dinner
1110 2nd Street West
Kalispell, MT 59901

November 26th, 2009
11 am - 2 pm

For meal delivery call 406-257-4357
To volunteer call Naomi at 406-752-7337

4-H Livestock Auction

There are some great folks who helped Samaritan House by purchasing an animal through the 4-H Livestock Auction that was held at the Flathead County Fair in August.
They are:
Judy Sommers & Western States Insurance
Jerry & Cynthia Kennedy
Jay & Tina Stetson - Water Well Services
Frank & Peg Gebhardt - Alamon
Holly Walsh & Western States Insurance
Bob White & D.A. Davidson

Phil Olson and Rick Winkowitsch also donated beef directly from their ranch in Cut Bank, Montana.

Annually, the Samaritan House serves nearly 24,000 meals in the shelter kitchen. This will give us a good head start towards being able to do this. Thank you again.

Girl Scout Troop #3381

Girl Scout Troop #3381 recently put together gift bags for everyone in the shelter.  Included in the bags were items like soap, toothpaste, tooth brushes, shampoo and all kinds of helpful things.  Troop #3381 is led by Brenda Miller and co-led by Lori Botkin, it is a Junior Troop from Evergreen.  You may know Lori as the Executive Director of the Flathead Food Bank.  

This project was part of earning their Bronze Award.  In the process they learned how to shop with coupons, how to recruit donations and much perseverance.  They called stores, Doctor's and Dentist's offices and little by little had gathered enough items for the shelter.  

Lori Botkin said that very little money, around $20, was actually spent in the process, "This was an example of salesmanship as learned by selling girl scout cookies."  

Some of the residents in the shelter had this to say:

"Thank you for caring."

"Girls, thanks a bunch.  This means a lot."

"Thank you for thinking about us."

"It is with honor and gracious joy that I accept your gift.  It is indeed testimony to all things that are beautiful, but, perhaps no where more special than a young girls heart, thank you."

"Thanks  a ton, how real nice of you to think of others."

"Girls, thank you so very much for the much needed items.  They were all things we needed.  As a family staying at the Samaritan House it saves us a lot of money.  Thank you so much for thinking of us."  

I thought you'd be encouraged to know about this.

Shelter Need Calculator

This may be sort of boring for some of you but I am interested in this because it shows on paper just how overloaded the shelter is. The Homelessness Research Institiute has developed a series of interactive maps, calculators and charts intended to provide quick access to data on homelessness and improve understanding of important concepts related to ending homelessness. These interactive tools are posted on the website for the National Alliance to End Homelessness website.

Below is the Shelter Need Calculator.

The column titled "Currently Serving" shows the number of people we are currently serving and the current size of the shelter, with the end result of 41 Shelter Beds Needed.

The column titled "Flathead Homeless Shelter Need" compares the size of the homeless population in Flathead County to the number of shelter beds needed to accomodate our homelessness issue. The result here is 225 Total Minimum Shelter Beds Needed.

Keep in mind these numbers only reflect the shelter portion of what the Samaritan House does. We also provide Transitional Housing and Permanent Housing.

To quote the movie Jaws, "I think we're gonna need a bigger boat."

Stay tuned for exciting news about what the Samaritan House is doing to try to address this demand for services...