CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – The Clarksville-Area Urban Ministries emergency warming shelter remains open during the winter storm and is in need of volunteers.
Shelter Manager Deborah Ashcraft told Clarksville Now the shelter has been busy but running smoothly, housing between 60 and 70 single men throughout the winter storm. She said many of the shelter’s residents have volunteered to help with cleaning bathrooms, mopping floors and shoveling sidewalks. “They’re just appreciative that they have a place to stay,” she said.
Ashcraft said the shelter’s biggest need right now is volunteers. “We’re good on food,” she said. “It’s just getting hands in there to be monitors.”
Volunteers would assist with checking people in, serving meals, cleaning up after dinner and providing hygiene supplies before bedtime. Overnight volunteers are primarily on call for emergencies or late arrivals and serve coffee and breaking in the morning. “They’re not very hard shifts to pull,” she said. “But especially during this weather, it’s been extremely difficult to get people in.”
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Ashcraft said community support surged ahead of the storm, with food donations pouring in. “Knowing the storm was coming – how this community rallied around us … the food just kept pouring in,” she said. “We’re so grateful to everyone who helped us get through this storm.
“We’re just so blessed,” she said. “Not only with our clients that we’re taking care of, but with our community, and how they stand up and get us through these storms.”
The shelter is located at the Madison Street United Methodist Church gymnasium, 300 Commerce St. It will remain open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, as long as temperatures remain below freezing.
To volunteer, click here.
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