The Winchester Area Temporary Transitional Shelter (WATTS) held its annual Caring & Sharing fundraiser on Oct. 19, 2024 at Elks Lodge 867, with about 165 people in attendance. WATTS’ overnight shelter season begins Nov. 2. Awards were presented to: Love to NIC, nonprofit of the year; Billy Sous, small business partner of the year; Elks Club 867, civic group of the year; 2024 President’s Award went to Johnny Blue Inc.; Volunteer of the Year was awarded to Tami Light (pictured here between WATTS board President Mike Ashby and WATTS Executive Director Robyn Miller). A special presentation was made to Greenwood Fire Company and the Cunningham family in memory of Walt Cunningham, the namesake of the WATTS golf tournament, for their longtime partnership with WATTS.

Saturday evening was cold, wet and miserable.

In other words, it was the perfect night to experience, at least for a short while, what it’s like to be a homeless person in Winchester.

The nonprofit Winchester Area Temporary Transitional Shelter (WATTS) held its second Coldest Night of the Year walk on Saturday. The event raised money for its programs to support the homeless and give people an opportunity to step in the figurative shoes of a person who has nowhere to turn for shelter and survives on whatever food is provided by churches and charities.

“You will walk past the [WATTS] guests who have to sit at a bus stop for an hour in this same weather,” WATTS Executive Director Robyn Miller said as the walkers assembled inside Braddock Street United Methodist Church at 115 Wolfe St.

The Coldest Night of the Year is an awareness initiative and fundraiser that originated in 2011 in Toronto, Canada, and since then has generated more than $75 million in contributions to help the homeless populations of 190 Canadian communities. The event expanded into the United States last year, and WATTS participated in the inaugural event with more than 400 volunteer walkers.

In terms of participants and money raised, WATTS ranked second in the United States last year among all the communities that held Coldest Night of the Year walks. The local effort was only eclipsed by the city of Fredericksburg.

This year, Miller said she wanted to be first among all 40 participating locations in the U.S. — and she nearly was. Winchester had 719 walkers and raised $114,656, which was 176% of WATTS’ goal of $65,000, but Fredericksburg led the nation with 770 walkers and $169,051 in contributions.

Even though Winchester came in second nationally for the second year in a row, Miller said participation in Saturday’s walk was “beyond my prayers. I just couldn’t have imagined.”

“We were expecting about 600 [walkers],” WATTS board member and Coldest Night of the Year event chairman Clay Perry said.

Miller said the money raised Saturday was enough to cover a quarter of WATTS’ annual operating budget. That will allow the nonprofit to continue its mission of serving the homeless with temporary overnight shelter and meals during cold months, daytime heating and cooling centers with snacks throughout the year and ongoing services to help them regain control of their lives and obtain permanent housing.

“Every time they (clients) apply for an apartment, it’s a $40 fee. Every time they get an ID, it’s another $10 fee,” Miller said. “We pay for all of that.”

Most participants in Coldest Night of the Year walks are part of a team comprised of family, coworkers, fellow church members and so on. In Winchester, Southside Church of Christ fielded the biggest team with 38 walkers, followed by Winchester Medical Center‘s School of Medical Imaging with 29. It could be argued, though, that New Life Christian Church had the most participants because it fielded three separate teams with a total of 61 walkers.

“They sign up as different teams to challenge each other and raise more money,” Perry said.

Among the walkers were a host of local and state dignitaries including Winchester City Councilors Les Veach and Emily Windle, Frederick County Supervisor John Jewell, Frederick County Circuit Court Clerk Sarah Kahle, Winchester Sheriff William Sales, Frederick County Sheriff Lenny Millholland, Del. Bill Wiley (R-Frederick County) and Virginia Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears.

“This is not something that is new to me because I ran a homeless shelter for women and children when I lived in Hampton Roads,” Earle-Sears said. “I wanted to be here. … WATTS is what happens when people say, ‘Somebody ought to do something,’ and then they realize they are that somebody.”

Earle-Sears commended WATTS for having the foresight to recognize that area churches could be utilized as temporary shelters during cold-weather months. The nonprofit is able to accommodate overnight guests through the winter thanks to a rotating roster of churches and community organizations that partner with WATTS and allow use of their facilities for one week at a time.

A former client of WATTS also shared his story of going from the streets to his own apartment.

He said he took a “leap of faith” and left his home in Washington, D.C., to move to Winchester. However, a lack of affordable housing forced him into homelessness for several months before he found his own dwelling.

“I’ve seen both sides — having shelter and not having shelter — and believe me, there are really good people living without,” the employed man said. “You can’t always judge a book by its cover because everyone has a story.”

The 719 people who had crowded onto Wolfe Street outside of Braddock Street United Methodist Church then stepped off for their walk through Winchester. Participants remained together until they reached the intersection of Amherst and West Boscawen streets, where they split into two groups: One that followed a 2-kilometer course, and a second that took a longer 5-kilometer route.

Despite a cold, steady drizzle, walkers had high spirits. That was particularly evident when Sabra Veach of Winchester skipped her way across Amherst Street, a huge grin on her face.

All the cold but happy walkers eventually returned to Braddock Street United Methodist Church for a simple meal of soup, exemplifying how people who are homeless sometimes have to subsist on the most basic food items — if they can find any food at all.

To learn more about WATTS, visit watts-homelessshelter.org or Coldest Night of the Year at cnoy.com/winchester.

Area residents on Tuesday awoke to a blanket of snow. For many, the winter wonderland was a pretty sight, but for those who are homeless such conditions can be life-threatening.

Especially those who might not have been able to find a warm place to spend the night.

According to the National Weather Service, the forecast for Winchester calls for temperatures at or below freezing every day until Monday.

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to be homeless in the dead of winter, you’ll soon have the opportunity to find out.

The occasion is the Coldest Night of the Year (CNOY), which is not a meteorological prediction but an annual fundraising and awareness walk to be held nationwide on Feb. 24.

Locally, Coldest Night of the Year is hosted by Winchester Area Temporary Transitional Shelter (WATTS), a nonprofit organization that provides area residents experiencing homelessness with overnight shelter during cold weather, a daytime center during cold/hot weather, and support programs to help clients regain their independence and find housing year-round.

“Winchester was second in the nation last year, and we’re hoping to be first in the nation this year,” WATTS Executive Director Robyn Miller said about the 400-plus participants in last year’s Coldest Night of the Year walk, when the only locality in the United States with more walkers was Fredericksburg. “Our goal is to have over 700 walkers.”

As of Tuesday afternoon, 134 people had signed up to participate in Winchester’s walk. If you want to help boost that number, Miller said you can register for free at watts-homelessshelter.org and choose to walk a 2-kilometer or 5-kilometer route. You and your friends, family and/or coworkers can create a team, but if you’re going it alone, you’ll be welcome to join the Walkers for WATTS squad.

After signing up, participants are encouraged to find sponsors who will make a donation in the amount of their choice in exchange for the walker completing his or her selected route. Some nationwide employers including Costco, Walmart, the Home Depot and Starbucks all have matching donations available to any of their employees who walk and fundraise. (To find out if your company offers matching funds, visit cnoy.com/matchingfunds.)

While this year’s walk is still more than a month away, Miller encourages anyone interested to sign up as soon as possible so participants will have more time to find sponsors. All proceeds from the walk will benefit the programs and services offered by WATTS.

Miller said both the 2K and 5K routes pass through the Loudoun Street Mall in downtown Winchester and a bus stop where WATTS clients are picked up and driven to an overnight shelter.

“We walked past a lot of people experiencing homelessness [last year], and when they [walk participants] realized that’s who they were helping …,” Miller said, her voice fading as she began to cry. “We want those people experiencing homelessness to know that we really do care and we’re walking around Winchester to support them.”

Personnel from Rouss Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company will lead off the walk, which Miller emphasizes is not a race so participants don’t need to hit the gym before helping the homeless.

“It’s a wonderful time,” Miller said.

Both routes start and end at Braddock Street United Methodist Church, 115 Wolfe St., where walkers will be served a simple meal of soup, bread and a beverage afterwards. The point, Miller said, is to replicate the experience of a homeless person whose only sustenance comes from a soup kitchen serving free food.

The Coldest Night of the Year walk is open to people of all ages, but children 12 and under must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Due to insurance regulations, pets are not allowed to join the walk unless they are trained service animals.

Miller said everyone who comes out for Winchester’s walk on a cold February evening will leave with appreciation and sympathy for their neighbors who are homeless.

“You’ll be walking around in their [figurative] shoes, in the cold, having to move all the time,” she said.

To learn more about WATTS and the Winchester walk on Feb. 24, visit watts-homelessshelter.org. Information about the national Coldest Night of the Year fundraising and awareness event is available at cnoy.com/winchester.

Thanks to the community’s generosity and the enduring memory of a beloved woman who passed away too soon, Winchester Area Temporary Transitional Shelter (WATTS) now has nearly $57,000 to help it support, protect and assist the area’s growing population of homeless residents.

On Thursday morning at Braddock Street United Methodist Church in Winchester, the philanthropic organization Cheers to Charity presented a $50,000 check to WATTS, a local nonprofit that provides overnight shelter during cold weather, a daytime cooling center during hot weather, and year-round support and guidance for people transitioning from homelessness to a secure future.

That check presentation brought tears of joy, but what followed brought about tears of another sort.

A second check was for $6,770 and represented donations made in memory of founding Cheers to Charity board member Kim Rhodes, who died on Nov. 1 after a brief bout with cancer. Her obituary asked mourners to celebrate her life by making a donation to Cheers to Charity to support WATTS and the response was tremendous.

“She was one of those people that if she saw a person in need, she would stop the car and check on them,” her husband, Greg Rhodes, said on Thursday. “She was a very unselfish person.”

WATTS Executive Director Robyn Miller said the money donated to WATTS by supporters and Rhodes’ friends and family will help fund a variety of the nonprofit’s shelter, support and transitional programs.

Currently, WATTS is operating an overnight shelter for up to 40 people per night. Accommodations are offered on a weekly basis by local churches that set up cots and comfort items within their facilities. Since some of the churches are not in walking distance from downtown Winchester, WATTS offers transportation, with a bus that picks up clients in the evening and returns them to Winchester in the morning.

Thursday’s check presentations were held at Braddock Street United Methodist Church at 115 Wolfe St. because that’s where this week’s WATTS shelter is set up.

Braddock Street United Methodist is a large facility with plenty of room for 40 or more cots, which is good because Miller said the local homelessness problem is growing due to rising rents and higher home values.

“We have a lot of guests with mental illness and a lot of guests with addictions, but we also have a lot of guests who are working but there’s no [affordable] places for them to live,” Miller said. “We have a guest here who works for the city of Winchester but can’t afford an apartment in the city of Winchester.”

Even if someone can afford current housing prices, Miller said, there is a significant shortage of homes to rent or buy because the Winchester area has become a highly desirable place to live.

“When something does come on the market in a normal price range, it’s gone,” she said. “When you don’t have any family here or someone to rely on, you’re homeless.”

Cheers to Charity has been in existence for more than a decade, but it wasn’t until two or three years ago when it became widely known in the Winchester area. Its members started off by hosting numerous fundraisers to help a variety of local nonprofits, but in 2021, the organization shifted its approach and started focusing on a single charity each year.

The first result of that new approach came in January 2022 with a $30,000 check presentation to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, which addresses food insecurity in the Shenandoah Valley. The following January brought a $40,000 check for Froggy’s Closet, which provides clothing, school supplies, enrichment activities and more for children who are underprivileged or in the foster care system.

Check No. 3 was delivered on Thursday and even the ten Cheers to Charity board members were impressed by the nearly $57,000 raised for WATTS in the year 2023.

But to be clear, they were impressed, not content.

“My goal is giving a charity $100,000,” said Jeanne Mezzatesta, board chair for the all-volunteer Cheers to Charity. “The more we can raise, the more we can give.”

Cheers to Charity hosts numerous fundraisers throughout the year including a happy hour, a meet-and-greet during the Shenandoah Apple Blossom Festival, day lily sales and a concert. Last year, Mezzatesta said they added a golf tournament that hopefully will grow in prosperity as it grows in popularity.

The annual process of selecting a nonprofit to support begins in September, when Cheers to Charity invites local nonprofits to apply for financial assistance. Board members review the applications, pare them down to five or so, then vote for which group they want to help that year. Representatives from the top three groups are then asked to give presentations about their organizations and how their volunteers could assist with various fundraising efforts throughout the year, then Cheers to Charity members vote again to make a final selection.

Mezzatesta said this year’s beneficiary will be Concern Hotline, a 24-hour crisis intervention organization the serves Winchester and the counties of Frederick, Clarke, Warren, Shenandoah and Page.

To make a donation to Cheers to Charity on behalf of Concern Hotline, visit cheerstocharityva.org.

You can learn more about Concern Hotline at concernhotline.org, and information about WATTS is available at watts-homelessshelter.org.

Even though we’re still in the midst of the hottest summer on record, it’s time to start thinking about the cold months ahead and how the area’s homeless population will survive.

WATTS, which changed its name in October from the Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter to the Winchester Area Temporary Transitional Shelter, will host its fourth annual “An Evening of Caring and Sharing” fundraiser Saturday to collect a portion of the money it needs to continue housing and caring for people experiencing homelessness in the Winchester area.

“It’s one of our largest [annual] fundraisers,” Robyn Miller, executive director of WATTS, said on Tuesday. “It’s just a fun night.”

“An Evening of Caring and Sharing” will be held from 5-11 p.m. Saturday at the Winchester Moose Lodge at 215 E. Cork St. Tickets are $50 each and can be purchased at the door or in advance at watts-homelessshelter.org.

Proceeds will benefit the nonprofit organization that has been offering overnight shelter for the homeless from November through March since 2009 — a service it provides in conjunction with local churches and community groups that volunteer to house the WATTS program for one week at a time. To make sure guests can access the rotating shelter locations, WATTS offers a free shuttle service based in downtown Winchester. The upcoming overnight shelter season begins. Nov. 4.

Last winter, Miller said WATTS served a total of 225 people at its overnight thermal shelter locations and daytime warming center. It also hosts a daytime cooling center in the summer.

The overnight shelter could be in even higher demand this winter because the Winchester Salvation Army isn’t currently housing people at its shelter on Fort Collier Road. The Winchester Rescue Mission is the community’s only year-round shelter at the moment.

WATTS, which has an annual budget of $350,000, must raise enough money not only for its temporary thermal shelter program, but also for its recently launched year-round initiatives to transition people out of homelessness by helping clients obtain documentation such as birth certificates and IDs, fill out job applications, schedule medical appointments, find affordable dwellings and more.

“We had to hire more staff because it was more needed than we realized,” Miller said of the WATTS program to transition people out of homelessness. “They work year-round and around the clock to help people. … It can take a long time to get someone from homelessness to housed. And it takes a lot of support afterward — we don’t just help them get in a house and walk away. We keep trying to support them to make sure they stay successfully housed because it’s difficult.”

Additionally, WATTS operates a daytime cooling center each summer so people with nowhere to go can find relief from the heat. In the winter, a daytime warming center is offered to protect the homeless from the cold. Both centers are located at Market Street United Methodist Church at 131 S. Cameron St. in Winchester, and the people who utilize them are treated to snacks and beverages whenever they visit.

“WATTS has grown, which is a wonderful thing, but it also means we have to raise a lot more money,” Miller said. “Also, our goal has always been to have a building of our own and that takes a lot of money, so we’re fundraising very hard to achieve our goals.”

Miller said Saturday’s “An Evening of Caring and Sharing” is a great way for area residents to help the area’s homeless while having a good time.

“Shag band is playing and there will be good food, lots of raffle baskets, and more” she said.

There will also be a cash bar, dancing, a live auction, awards, a selfie station and guest speakers who will highlight the importance of WATTS and its mission to serve the local homeless population.

When asked for a recent example of how WATTS helped a client get off the streets and start a better life, Miller spoke of a man who had utilized the nonprofit’s thermal shelter the past two winters.

“He finally agreed to go into rehab in Lynchburg and he knocked it out of the park,” Miller said. “He ended up getting a job down in Lynchburg and found housing in a sober-living home. He’s still there, happy and successful.”

To learn more about WATTS and Saturday’s “An Evening of Caring and Sharing” fundraiser, visit watts-homelessshelter.org.