Page 51 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 46 Winter 2024

volunteered at one point or another However, volunteers are no longer
from 2009 until 2020 shows the staying overnight as CH support
depth and breadth of AT’s success. staff are present overnight through
Everything went smoothly until the morning.
the March 2020 pandemic arrived, The WES Individual Shelter and Our Pain Management and
shutting Abaham’s Tent program Family Centers’ yearly operating GET BACK IN Sports Rehab programs can help get
down along with every other Con- costs approach $200,000 annually. THE GAME! you back to doing what you love!
necticut community man’s and The town of Wallingford provides an
woman’s shelter programs. By April, annual grant of $30,000 to offset For more information, visit:
CH moved all emergency shelter the Family Center’s operational fyzical.com/northeast-region
and warming center guests to motel costs. The remainder of the funding
rooms with pandemic funding from relies on donations from Wallingford
the federal government. CH had area businesses, residents, or other
to adapt to a new housing model, CH philanthropic sources. Local
which found its staff assigned to companies supporting WES and the
each motel where clients were Family Center include Fred Ulbrich
placed. Despite the pandemic, the Memorial Fund, Ulbrich Stainless
AT ministries supported motel cli- Steel, Frontier Communications,
ents by providing meals and grocer- Napier Foundation, Liberty, Ion, Web-
ies and organizing clothing drives. ster, and Wells Fargo banks. Area
The individual shelter landscape residents are also restricting their CH
has undergone permanent changes donations to be used for WES only.
due to the pandemic. A practical The People Who Find
solution to seasonal individual over- Themselves Homeless
night shelters now meant combin-
I have been associated with CH
ing the AT with the WES overnight for over 30 years. It is easily my
shelter programs.
most rewarding aspect of paying
Abrahams’s Tent and the it forward. Until the pandemic, my
Wallingford Emergency Shelter wife, brother, cousin, and friends
Become One would prepare meals at WES about
In winter 2024, Abraham’s four times a winter. We got to know
the WES clients.
Tent would begin again with new I will leave you with this obser-
accommodation in Wallingford. In vation. Many clients are no different
mid-November, thirty dedicated than you or me. Some have full-time
AT volunteers packed the kitchen jobs but don’t have enough income
area in WES to begin planning a re- to secure a place to live. But all
imagined AT program. Starting this deserve the respect and dignity
past January, ten CH clients from programs such as WES and CH’s AT
the greater New Haven community provide. The clients are so expres-
are spending their nights at WES sive in their appreciation for the
through March. But now, rather kindness bestowed on them.
than the CH clients being shuttled To learn more about CH, go to
to the various places of worship, the www.columbushouse.org. If you
ministries and congregations are wish to donate, you can restrict your
driving to the client’s permanent donation to the WES program. If
Wallingford shelter location. A differ- you have questions about the WES
ent area ministry will provide meals AT program or Columbus House,
and companionship each week. please email jpajor9553@aol.com.
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