Cathy started by explaining why people are homeless. She said some of the most common reasons include mental illness, domestic violence, poverty, unemployment or acute health problems. She said that women, especially women with children, are at a greater risk of homelessness.
Samaritan Well is the only homeless shelter in McDonough County and surrounding area. They served 35 families last year and there are currently 16 families on the womens shelter waiting list.
Cathy mentioned that they operate primarily with state funding and those are becoming more difficult to obtain. This year the state was late in providing funding and there was a possibility the shelters might have had to close. She said it costs about $7,000 a month to operate the shelters and fortunately they did receive about 2/3 of their state funding which enabled them to remain open. She said that financial support from the community lessens their dependence on the state for funding. Tax deductable contributions can be made to the Samaritan Well.
Next week we'll be back at Cafe Aroma on University Drive and the speaker will be from Volunteer Now.
President Debbie Vandemark presided. John Moon led us in singing and Chuck Nicholson gave the invocation.
Debbie read a thank you letter from the YMCA. We contributed $100 towards that.
There will be a board meeting following the regular meeting next week at Cafe Aroma.
Tim had the final report from Peanut Days and said the peanuts cost $957.48 and we had a net income of $2,641 which exceeded our goal. Thanks to everyone that contributed time and money.
Please be generous with your time on December 5 for Breakfast with
Santa at Macomb Junior/Senior High School. We set up the grills for the breakfast on Friday, December 4. More information next week.
Shopping with Santa is still planned for December 12 and all available hands are
needed. December is a busy month with Salvation Army bell ringing and
food basket distribution to also help with.
It was decided that, due to the holidays, we will not have meetings on December 22 and 29.
