Details:

Below are further immediate volunteer needs as identified by Jan Hawkins, Volunteer Director:

• We ALWAYS have a need for meals to be done for the shelter residents on weekends and holidays.  The day that is most challenging is Sundays, since that’s always a big family day for many people.  Meals can be done either in our full-service kitchen, or can be prepared at the church or someone’s home and brought to the shelter.  If time is a factor, a group can always prepare a meal in advance and drop it off either just prior to a weekend, or the day of the meal itself.  The kitchen has ample cooler and freezer space to safely store meals.  We have some groups who prepare meals on site, and other groups that find it easier to do meal prep at home and either bring it in to serve or drop it off for the meal.
• Our need for paper products such as paper towels and toilet paper is an ongoing issue.  The shelter alone goes through at least 60 rolls of toilet paper in a week’s time, so it doesn’t last long around here.  Paper towels and trash bags of all sizes are another constant need.
• The shelter staff likes to give every child who enters our shelter a quilt that they can keep.  The quilts don’t have to be huge, just something the child would enjoy and can take when they leave our facility.
• We have some events coming up that will have a need for volunteers:  Empty Bowls on October 24 at Manassas Baptist Church, and Operation Turkey in November.  Operation Turkey volunteers will be needed beginning November 8. Our kickoff meeting will be in mid-September, and as soon as I know the schedule, I can provide it for you.  Anyone who is interested in volunteering should contact me for more information.
• The Christmas holidays have ample volunteer opportunities – parties or holiday meals for the residents, adopt a shelter family for Christmas gifts. One church always comes just prior to Christmas and does a holiday pageant for the shelter residents.
• Many of the residents’ rooms in the shelter are in need of repainting and being refurnished.  When we first moved here in 2002, many churches and businesses “adopted” a shelter room, then painted and furnished that room.  After six years, many furniture pieces need replaced, plus the walls are in need of new paint.  A group from Bethel can adopt a room if they would like to do so.
• Dishwasher is broken
• Need to replace washers and dryers