Taking Steps to Success at
Stepping Stones Shelter ‘
My Diamond Service Clover
Project by Loren Guernsey
Did you know that
there are over 1,100 homeless people in Mont-gomery County? There are a lot of
misconceptions about homeless-ness. Many think it only affects the uneducated
or mentally ill, but a crisis can hit anyone. The recent government shut down
is just one example that can push a family into crisis. Think of what would
happen if someone suddenly lost their job or experienced a major accident or
illness or suffered some kind of trauma that required an unexpected hospital
stay or long-term care. It happens more often than we think, even in the
wealthiest of counties.
The Stepping Stones
Shelter helps families to get back on their feet by giving those in crisis a
place to live, career counseling and help with finding employment. The shelter
houses around 30 families each year, up to over 100 individuals. These families
include two-parent families, single moms or dads. Most have young children to
support.
Clothing and
outerwear are very expensive, especially when consid-ering how often kids
change size as they grow. Someone who is homeless would not be able to afford clothing
and outerwear for their kids. My Diamond Clover Service Project will help
homeless people to get back on their feet by providing clothing and outerwear
to families that stay at the shelter in addition to sheets, towels and other
linens that the shelter can wash and reuse. I will collect canned food and dry
goods for the shelter’s pantry. Some can be distributed to families as a pantry
starter when they move on to places of their own. With posters and fliers, I
will increase aware-ness on homelessness in our county and encourage others to
help.
I would be glad if
Lucky Clovers can bring unopened packages of new underwear (any size or
gender), new sheets, or new mattress pads for all size beds to the February
club meeting. I would also ap-preciate donations of gently used coats or
outerwear and of canned and dried goods or snacks. The shelter especially needs
bulk size snack items like applesauce pouches, fruit snacks and granola bars
because they have a lot of kids there right now. I plan to organize a Spring
fundraiser with Chipotle to support Diamond Clover 6 pro-jects, and use some of
the funds to buy needed items for the shelter.
Thank you for supporting my Diamond Clover
Service Project!
