Simply To Serve
Winter Homeless Shelter, in its fifth year of operation on the Wesleyan campus, stands as an example of how ordinary people with a commitment to making a difference can do extraordinary things.
By Leona Baker | January 20, 2011
(NORFOLK/VIRGINIA BEACH) It's day five of the fifth annual Winter Homeless Shelter on the campus of Virginia Wesleyan College. More than 75 guests and nearly 90 volunteers — mostly VWC students, faculty and staff — fill the C-MAC gymnasium inside Jane P. Batten Student Center with activity and conversation.
Each night at Shelter has a different theme. One night it's Latin dance. Another night it's haircuts. Tonight happens to be church night. Reverend Kathleen Hayes of nearby Heritage United Methodist Church leads about 20 shelter guests and volunteers in a brief but moving service complete with music by the Wesleyan praise band, while others are socializing, playing basketball, enjoying a turkey dinner with macaroni and cheese or taking advantage of one of the many valuable services available to guests during their stay.
Looking on is 24-year-old former VWC student Felecia Kiser, one of two co-founders of what organizers believe to be the only homeless shelter in the nation operated on a college campus. In her red "Shelter Manager" vest, Kiser quietly reflects on how a simple idea has grown into a campus tradition that, while designed to offer comfort to those in need, has proven a meaningful, even life-changing event for so many involved in its operation. Kiser has not missed a single year of the Shelter's annual week-long January run. This year, she traveled all the way from Staunton, Virginia, to be a part of it.
"It amazes me to come back five years later and see that there is a waiting list of volunteers," she remarks.
Kiser, along with fellow former student Nuni Rae, originally pitched the campus shelter idea to VWC Director of Community Service Diane Hotaling. Hotaling told them to write a proposal. They did, and when the time came to bring their proposal to Dean David Buckingham, they went in prepared for a long, drawn-out process and a likely rejection. That's not what they got.
"We were in there for maybe three minutes," says Kiser. "He just said, ‘Sounds good, girls, let's do it.' I couldn't believe it."
Then came the hard part: planning, organizing, establishing safety procedures, recruiting volunteers, collecting supplies. Once the logistics were in place, what emerged in January, 2007, was an event that goes beyond providing folks a warm place to sleep and a hot meal.
"I initially thought it was a cool thing to do," Kiser says. "But I also thought: Why? Any church can give them shelter. We just do it so much differently."
The difference, Kiser and hundreds of other Shelter volunteers and guests have found, is in the personal touches and human interactions. Established as a partnership with the Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless, Shelter has evolved into a truly collaborative campus-wide effort, which now includes official academic tie-ins such as the interdisciplinary service learning class offered during winter session, for which participation in Shelter is a requirement.
Established as a partnership with the Portsmouth Volunteers for the Homeless, Shelter has evolved into a truly collaborative campus-wide effort.
Other unexpected tie-ins, such as the origami napkins created by a winter session math class for this year's Shelter, have left surprising yet indelible impressions on guests and volunteers. The napkins were part of a lavish table display set out one night for dinner about half way through Shelter week.
"A guest asked me, ‘What's the deal with this setup? You expecting the President?'," wrote Felecia Kiser in her "volunteer reflections" for the evening. "I replied, ‘No sir, we were expecting you!' With tears in his eyes he said, ‘Well, ain't that a wonderful thing,' and then walked away. This guest and others got to enjoy a moment of warmth that comes from the knowledge that someone cared enough to do something special for them at a time in their lives when they rarely feel special to anyone. It is the tiniest gestures of kindness that fuel the fire in a person's soul."
Of course, Shelter is also a tangible opportunity for students and other volunteers to come face to face with the human toll of homelessness, to make meaningful connections with guests.
"I tell students this is real. Shelter is reality," says Director of Community Service Diane Hotaling. "So many of us are not touched by the real world: pain, suffering. Or we think we're the only ones who are in pain, or at least what we define as pain."
Transcending social barriers and stereotypes is a big part of the Shelter experience.
"I feel like that's where a true education begins and ends," Hotaling says. "We are so blessed to be at a place that values that kind of learning."
In keeping with the College's Wesleyan heritage, VWC students are encouraged to become engaged citizens who care about their community in active ways. As the brainchild of two young people with a simple idea to make a difference, Winter Shelter is just one amazing example of what Dr. Martin Luther King meant when he said, "Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve."