A Human in Need

 This is just such a beautiful letter to my editor, that I had to share it here too:

Dear Vesta,

I hope all your readers are staying plenty warm and dry these last few weeks! I am so grateful this year for my cozy house, ample firewood supply, food in my cupboard and friends to share it with. It's hard to believe that this will be my fourth winter on the river. By now I am somewhat accustomed to the damp and dark of December-March and ever grateful for wool socks, rain proof outerwear and homemade soup. My second winter season here was survived without heat or hot water. Many of your readers have faced similar circumstances at some time or another. For those of us, it can assuredly be said that we never look at winter the same way again.


This year, there are more people than ever going without shelter during the cold, wet, rainy months in Western Sonoma County. The Emergency Winter Shelter at St. Hubert's Hall in Guerneville is housing roughly 30 residents per evening and providing two warm meals per day. The result of this influx has been an increased need for members of our community to step up and help out so we can keep the doors open through the end of February. In my efforts to recruit volunteers for the Shelter, there is frequent commentary about the personal choice of some people to live homeless. This statement has often segued into the precarious inquisition... "aren't we just enabling them to continue being a burden on society?"

This is a valid question, asked by even the most good-hearted individuals.

With any significant amount of time spent on the river, it becomes difficult not to notice the conflicting views on the issue of the unsheltered in our area. To those who struggle with this dilemma, I would like to revisit a quote that was published in the last issue of the Sonoma County Gazette, "a volunteer is a person who is a light to others, giving witness in a mixed-up age, doing well and willingly the tasks at hand-namely, being aware of another's needs and
doing something about it." (Source Unknown)

Is it really our place to determine whether someone in need deserves help? Or is it our duty to simply help those who need it? After all, the unsheltered in our neighborhoods are not some menacing "other" but simply you and I with different stories. They are you and I, sober or inebriated, sane or insane, clean or dirty, whose narratives contain a variety of choices made when options may not have been forthcoming. (Furthermore, who among has not received aid at a time we might have been considered undeserving?)

A large portion of the role staff play at the Winter Shelter in Guerneville is to take clients through a rigorous assessment to identify their needs and connect them with resources that can help: job placement assistance, mental health services, addiction counseling, etc. If clients choose not to take advantage of services offered, that is their prerogative. A citizen in need of shelter and a warm meal in the dead of winter is still just that - a human being in need.

For me, that is enough.

If anyone is willing and able to help, we need help serving meals, laundry assistance and general facility maintenance. You can contact me by email: wintersheltervolunteers@gmail.com

Warmest Wishes,
Annabele Grace