Charlie Battery to the rescue
Posted On: Tuesday, Oct. 13 2009 05:50 AM
By Hailey Persinger
Killeen Daily HeraldAs Crystal Gunthorpe sat outside a Subway sandwich shop Monday morning waiting to lead what she expected to be 10 volunteers to Killeen's Home and Hope Shelter, a caravan of cars filled with soldiers and their wives snaked into the parking lot.
Armed with brooms, rags and cleaning supplies, the crew totaled nearly 40 volunteers from Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 44th Air Missile Defense, 69th Air Defense Artillery Brigade.
With four times the number of helpers than expected, the group cleaned up seven of the shelter's nine houses in less than two hours, completing phase one of a three-day restoration project in hopes of getting Killeen's homeless off the streets and under a roof they can call their own.
The shelter halted operations last year for repairs to its five duplexes and four houses. Since then, a new board of directors has taken over with a goal of making the residences on York Street and Mimosa Drive brighter, homier and livable.
Gunthorpe, head of Charlie Company's family readiness group, said restoring Killeen's only homeless shelter was a project she stumbled upon while looking for a way to get soldiers' families involved in the city.
"We wanted to make a big difference," she said. "I said, 'If you want to open up your hearts to help someone, let's go.'"
Spc. Nick Hellman was one of those ready to go the minute he heard about the opportunity.
"I like to volunteer," he said. "I might as well help out."
Linda Hatcher, executive director of Home and Hope, said that with help from people like Hellman, she hopes some of Killeen's homeless will get to call the shelter home by Christmas.
The shelter's long-term goal, however, is not to simply provide its residents with a roof.
"What we want to do is give these people guidance and get them back on their feet," Hatcher said. "There's no way we can just put someone in here and abandon them and hope they get a job."
The shelter will offer job assistance and financial counseling to its residents. It can't do that, however, until funding begins to roll in, said Hatcher, who voluntarily runs the shelter's operations. Once the money is available, she expects the houses to fill up quickly.
She said she gets at least five calls every day from people who have endured health crises that have left them destitute, divorces that have left them with nothing and unemployment that has lasted longer than they expected.
Though she cannot give them a place to stay, she said that until the shelter finds the money to open its doors, she'll direct callers to shelters in Temple and Copperas Cove and leave them with the promise of future stability.
"Hope," she said. "That's the one thing I think we can give them."
Contact Hailey Persinger at
haileyp@kdhnews.com or (254) 501-7568.