By Bill Doyle  | CFP Correspondent

The pandemic has changed how volunteers can interact with families who live in the Interfaith Hospitality Network home on June Street. But it hasn’t diminished volunteers’ commitment to the program.
Prior to the arrival of COVID-19, volunteers supervised dinnertime and ate with the guests. Sometimes the volunteers brought meals, sometimes the guests prepared them. Volunteers played Wiffle ball and shot baskets with the children. They read to them, colored with them and made gingerbread houses with them. Volunteers cut the guests’ hair and did their nails. Some brought their own children to play with the children of guests.
There’s none of that now.
“It’s kind of sad right now, really, but you’re there for support,” said Janet Rauktis, a member of Christ the King Parish and a past board member and vice president of IHN. 
Catholic parishes and other faith communities provide supervision for safety and security after the day staff goes home. Volunteers arrive for dinnertime, from 5:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m., or stay overnight, from 8:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. Overnight volunteers bring pillows and blankets or sleeping bags and sleep on rollout beds in the locked office.
Last March, just two weeks before the pandemic began to close things down, St. Patrick Parish in Whitinsville became the latest congregation to volunteer.
St. Patrick volunteer Fred Beauregard pointed out that volunteering for IHN doesn’t take a lot of time.
“You can do one five-hour shift twice a year and make a difference,” he said. “There’s no special training. It’s just a caring heart and being willing to reach out a little bit.”
Mrs. Rauktis and Celeste Hedge have volunteered for IHN since its beginning, 23 years ago. They oversee about 15 parishioners from Christ the King. The parish spent this past week helping at the June Street home. And they expect to do it again in May.
Mrs. Hedge said she will never forget the day she attended her first training session for the homeless shelter at Blessed Sacrament Church. It was June 16, 1997.
“That was the night that I lost my husband,” she said.
Jim Hedge had planned to walk around Elm Park, but he was found in his car at the park dead of a heart attack at age 47, leaving behind his wife and three children. Mr. Hedge was a devoted volunteer himself, especially with the Boy Scouts. So, Mrs. Hedge believes her husband would have helped out at IHN as well.
When IHN was launched in November of 1997, the homeless guests stayed at a church or synagogue for a week or two at a time before moving on to the next one. Mrs. Hedge remembers families arriving at Christ the King carrying their few belongings in trash bags. That nomadic life ended in 2012 when Friendly House, the financial agent for IHN, purchased a home at 91 June St. and opened the shelter.
For years Mrs. Hedge would ask for donations, grocery gift cards and volunteers at the entrance of the church. Since the pandemic, however, she’s had to do much of her work on the phone.  
“I’ve got this long list of volunteers,” she said, “but as they age, and with COVID, it’s been really hard to get the response just because many people don’t want to be in public or go into a strange home.”
Because some volunteers were reluctant to chaperone at the shelter during the pandemic, IHN held a fundraiser last spring so it could hire more staff to cover the evenings and overnights. A recent holiday appeal and Giving Tuesday fundraiser brought in more than $24,000, which IHN Program Director Michelle Beaver-Nieves called a record amount.
While some people have stopped volunteering during the pandemic, others feel safe because of the shelter’s strict COVID-19 protocols. Volunteers no longer interact with the guests. Guests are allowed to leave the shelter only to work, to take the children to daycare, to grocery shop or to attend doctor appointments. They must wear masks around others. Staff and volunteers wear masks at all times and the house is sanitized frequently. So far, IHN has had no COVID-19 cases, according to Mrs. Beaver-Nieves.
IHN advisory board chair Bridgid Rubin and Terri Waite coordinate the 30-35 volunteers at St. Mary Church in Shrewsbury who stay a week in April and another in August.
“You feel like you’re impacting someone’s life,” Ms. Rubin said. “Your hope is that by participating in this program, these families never return to homelessness again. We’ve given them tools to not return to this situation.”
Janet Vignaly coordinates the 11 volunteers at Our Lady of Good Counsel in West Boylston and her husband, Vincent, has volunteered since 1998. She said some volunteers have donated money instead of their time during the pandemic.
Our Lady of Good Counsel parishioners volunteer for a week in June, August and December, and organize a Christmas party with donated presents at the house each year. 
Mr. Vignaly filled in as both the evening and overnight host on Jan. 11. Last year, he brought his son, Phillip, then 12, with him for a couple of overnight shifts.
“Stuff happens to good people and that’s why the shelter is there,” Mr. Vignaly said.
“They’d be living in their cars, if they had a car. Some of them have had to stay there a year because it’s hard to find housing.”

        

Volunteers and guests both benefit from IHN

By Bill Doyle
CFP Correspondent
Celeste Hedge has dined with the guests, played with the children and slept over at the Interfaith Hospitality Network home on June Street. She’s a big believer in IHN and has volunteered for 23 years through Christ the King Parish. 
“I think (being a volunteer) personalizes the word ‘homelessness,’” she said.
“Any person at any time could be in the same position that they’re in,” said Janet Rauktis, also a member of Christ the King and a past IHN board member and vice president. “It could happen to any one of us.”
The Interfaith Hospitality Network provides a place to live for families who earn too much to qualify for public assistance, but not enough to afford their own housing.
Most guest mothers and fathers go to work each day. They live at no cost at the house for up to a year so they can eventually save enough money to afford their own place to stay.
Guests are taught skills, including how to budget, even how to compile a grocery list. They are also required to search for permanent housing.
Mrs. Rauktis realizes that homeless people are often mislabeled as addicted to drugs or alcohol.
“That’s not what this is all about,” she said, “because every one of these families is screened before they come in here. They’re just the average person who ran out of luck or lost their job and they just can’t find a place to live. They can’t afford it right now.”
Jim Lang calls his work with IHN one of the most gratifying things he does. He is a member of the IHN advisory board and has volunteered through Christ the King for more than a decade. He takes the overnight shift a half a dozen times a year, he said.
“Not only does Interfaith Hospitality Network help people that need it,” he said, “it also gives people the opportunity to go there and interact with people that need help and do something good.
“So, I think it really works for both the people who are helped and the people who are helping, to be able to not just send a check, but to go there and see the need and be able to make a concrete contribution to it.”
Michelle Beaver-Nieves, who became program director last July, said she sometimes hears from former guests who are struggling, but others call with good news. One woman called to say she was having another baby, another to say she passed her high school equivalency exam, another after finding a new job.
“It’s very rewarding to see them succeed and progress in life,” she said, “and know that you’re a part of that. It’s the best reward.”
Mrs. Beaver-Nieves, 45, can relate to her guests. She and her four children spent many years in several homeless shelters in Indiana and Worcester until nine years ago when Friendly House helped her get back on her feet.
While she was homeless, Mrs. Beaver-Nieves obtained her high school equivalency degree and her associate’s degree. She’s scheduled to finish her online bachelor’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University in a few weeks.
Nearly 1,000 people from 26 congregations of various faiths volunteer, including parishioners from eight Catholic parishes: Christ the King, Blessed Sacrament and St. George in Worcester, Our Lady of Good Counsel in West Boylston, St. Mary in Shrewsbury, St. Mary in North Grafton, St. Philip in Grafton and St. Patrick in Whitinsville.
Mrs. Beaver-Nieves said there’s a need for more congregations. No volunteers are scheduled yet for six weeks this year, including weeks in late February and early March.

Anyone interested in volunteering should contact IHN program director Mrs. Beaver-Nieves at mbeaver@IHNworcester.org.