Skip to content

WATTS walk to help Winchester area’s homeless population

A photo of a woman and daughter dressed warm, walking away from the camera on a downtown pedestrian mall lined with bricks and historic buildings.

It’s winter. You go outside, you get cold, you come inside, you get warm. Simple, right?

Not if you’re homeless. In the winter, many homeless people go out in the cold and stay there for hours, days, even weeks.

Area residents now have an opportunity to commiserate with the plight of the homeless while also making sure the area’s most disadvantaged residents always have a warm, safe place to go during the day or night. On Feb. 25, the Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter (WATTS) program is hosting its first Coldest Night of the Year Walk to support its year-round operations.

“It’s an international walk that raises funds for organizations that help the hurt, the hungry and the homeless,” WATTS Executive Director Robyn Miller said on Tuesday. “It also raises awareness that every place has a problem with homelessness. There’s always someone homeless somewhere.”

The Coldest Night of the Year Walk originated in 2011 in Toronto, Canada, and since then has raised more than $57 million to help the homeless populations of 166 Canadian communities. The event expanded into the United States last year, and WATTS will be participating in it for the first time next weekend.

“We’re very excited,” Miller said. “We’re closing in on 200 walkers. We would love to hit 300 because that’s when I need a police escort.”

Anyone who wants to join the walk, scheduled to step off at 5 p.m. Feb. 25, will have the option to choose a 2-kilometer or 5-kilometer route, both of which start at Braddock Street United Methodist Church at 115 Wolfe St. in Winchester. Participants are encouraged to line up financial sponsorships or donate money to help WATTS, but contributions are not required. However, anyone who raises $150 or more will receive a free Coldest Night of the Year beanie (or, as it’s called in Canada, toque).

“It’s open to everybody — children, families, businesses, whoever would like to come,” Miller said.

Children 12 and under must be accompanied on the walk by a parent or guardian, and the only pets that will be allowed are approved and trained service animals.

Along with raising money for WATTS, walk participants will learn what it’s like to be homeless in Winchester. Be prepared, though, because few things in life are more difficult than being displaced, desperate and disregarded.

“They have to walk all the time because they have no place to go,” Miller said, adding that the majority of stores and public buildings in Winchester do not want homeless people in or near their facilities.

In addition to being unwelcome, homeless people are often hungry and have no other option but to seek free meals from local churches or nonprofit agencies like Winchester Rescue Mission or the Salvation Army of Winchester. Coldest Night of the Year walkers will also get a free meal after completing the event, but don’t expect beef Wellington and risotto.

“It will end at Braddock Street United Methodist Church, where New Life Christian Church will be hosting a soup kitchen,” Miller said. “It will be a very simple meal of soup and bread.”

Miller said it’s important to feel compassion for the homeless.

“There are more homeless people out there than people realize,” she said. “You have the chronic homeless — people who have been homeless for a long time or the person holding a sign. You have the transitional — people that come in and out of homelessness. You have people that have had a traumatic event — a fire, a death in the family, a disability, a job loss — and can’t afford rent anymore. And then there are the hidden homeless — people who are living in their cars or a storage unit — who, if they lose their [living] arrangements, have no other place to go.

“You are probably standing next to somebody at [a store] who is homeless, and up to 30% of those people are children,” Miller said.

To register for the Coldest Night of the Year Walk or learn more about the event, visit watts-homelessshelter.org.

WATTS launched in 2009 as a means to convert local churches into temporary shelters that provide overnight accommodations for the homeless during the winter months. Each participating church offers free meals and a place to sleep for one week, then another church picks up the mantle the following week.

In 2020, WATTS added a daytime warming center where people can escape the cold, get snacks and water, use a restroom and have other basic needs met. That was followed in the summer of 2021 with the opening of a daytime cooling center that offered the same amenities during hot weather. Both centers are located at Market Street United Methodist Church at 131 S. Cameron St. in downtown Winchester.

WATTS also has a transition support team that formed in late 2021 and works year-round to help displaced people obtain birth certificates and identification, apply for jobs, submit forms for housing assistance, get information about drug and alcohol rehab programs and seek Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP benefits.

By BRIAN BREHM The Winchester Star

— Contact Brian Brehm at bbrehm@winchesterstar.com

 

Via Winchester Star

Original article: https://www.winchesterstar.com/winchester_star/watts-walk-to-help-winchester-areas-homeless-population/article_30b96e15-6e7c-5c71-beb7-6aef5a6e218e.html

A photo of a woman standing posed in a church kitchen.
Robyn Miller, executive director of the Winchester Area Temporary Transitional Shelter, stands inside the kitchen at Market Street United Methodist Church in Winchester, where WATTS offers a daytime warming center for homeless people. The nonprofit will host a Coldest Night of the Year Walk on Feb. 25, 2023 to support its year-round efforts to feed, shelter and support the displaced.

WATTS expands mission to help the homeless, unveils new logo

The Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter (WATTS) organization has expanded its mission to further help people experiencing homelessness in the Northern Shenandoah Valley.

At its annual fundraising dinner on Saturday, the nonprofit revealed its new mission statement:

“WATTS’s mission is to break the cycle of homelessness one life at a time. We empower individuals to re-enter the workforce and connect individuals to the resources needed to be as self-sufficient as possible while providing a safe temporary shelter during extreme weather.”

Along with the new mission statement comes a new logo. The previous image of a person being sheltered by a pair of hands has been updated to include more color and to show those hands holding a heart.

WATTS Executive Director Robyn Miller said the changes were made to reflect how the Winchester-based organization has grown from offering overnight shelter during the winter months to becoming a year-round operation with services to help homeless individuals find jobs and permanent housing.

“We’re trying to give them as many options as possible to find help out of homelessness,” Miller said. “There are so many barriers preventing them from being housed and making them successful once they’re in housing.”

WATTS launched in 2009 as a means to convert local churches into temporary shelters that provide overnight accommodations for the homeless during the winter months. Each participating church offers free meals and a place to sleep for one week, then another church picks up the mantle the following week.

In 2020, WATTS added a daytime warming center where people can escape the cold, get snacks and water, use a restroom and have other basic needs met. That was followed in the summer of 2021 with the opening of a daytime cooling center that offered the same amenities during hot weather. Both centers are located at Market Street United Methodist Church, 131 S. Cameron St., in downtown Winchester.

WATTS’s most recent addition is a three-person transition support staff that formed in late 2021 to work year-round helping displaced people obtain birth certificates and identification, apply for jobs, submit forms for housing assistance, get information about drug and alcohol rehab programs and seek Medicaid, Medicare and SNAP benefits.

“We have a guest that we just helped get into housing,” Miller said. “And we keep checking on him because it’s really difficult to go from homeless to housing and stay there and be successful.”

Miller said the issues that lead to people becoming homeless, such as mental health challenges, don’t go away once they get a house or apartment. That’s why WATTS’s transition team offers ongoing support to newly housed individuals until they’re able to be completely independent.

“Sometimes it’s super simple, like getting somebody a pair of ear buds so they can stay calm and stay inside,” Miller said. “And sometimes it’s really complex. We have a guest that’s been in hospice care for eight months and we stay with him and support him to make sure he is housed, safe and getting the emotional and spiritual support he needs until the end.”

Even as it expands its services, WATTS remains committed to providing temporary overnight shelter during cold-weather months. Accommodations will be offered Nov. 6 through March 13 at more than a dozen churches in Winchester and Frederick County, starting with Welltown United Methodist Church at 1444 Welltown Road in Clear Brook. A complete operating schedule is available at https://bit.ly/3CxEXyk, and Miller said the weekly shelters are expected to remain open 24 hours a day starting the week of Nov. 28.

The next goal, Miller said, is to open a permanent daytime facility that’s available year-round to individuals experiencing homelessness.

“It would give us a wonderful place for our transition support staff to meet with people,” she said. “We would like to have showers, washers and dryers.”

Miller said she would also like the facility to include a room where homeless clients with overnight jobs can sleep during the day. Overnight shifts generally pay more than those during the daytime, she said, but WATTS clients are often unable to work those hours because Winchester has no daytime shelters where they can sleep when their shift ends.

“It takes a lot of money,” Miller said about opening a permanent daytime facility.

On Saturday, WATTS raised an estimated $50,000 to $60,000 at its annual fundraising dinner, “An Evening of Caring and Sharing,” at Bowling Green Country Club North near Front Royal. Miller said the final tally of donations has not yet been calculated.

The dinner also gave Miller and the WATTS board of directors an opportunity to honor the businesses and volunteers whose support makes it possible for the organization to care for the homeless in Winchester, Frederick County and Clarke County:

  • The Marion Schottelkorb Volunteer of the Year award was presented to Steven Cunningham, who serves as lead volunteer for at least one shelter week per season and continuously recruits area businesses to donate food, haircuts and other services.
  • The David Witt Board Member of the Year award went to John Conrad, the nonprofit’s longtime treasurer whose guidance and oversight of expenditures helped WATTS save enough money to open its cooling and warming centers.
  • The Community Partner of the Year award was given to Shenandoah Valley Westminster-Canterbury, a retirement community in Winchester that has washed the laundry for guests of the cold-weather shelters since the first one opened in 2009. Miller said the laundry services provided by Westminster-Canterbury are valued at approximately $6,000 for each five-month shelter season.

Miller also praised her entire board of directors, which she said is comprised of the hardest working, most dedicated people she has ever worked with.

“They genuinely care about the homeless people in our area and their effect on the community as a whole,” she said. “I feel so fortunate because I know not everybody has a board like that.”

To learn more about WATTS and its initiatives to help area residents escape homelessness, visit watts-homelessshelter.org.

 

By BRIAN BREHM The Winchester Star

— Contact Brian Brehm at bbrehm@winchesterstar.com

 

Via Winchester Star

Original article: https://www.winchesterstar.com/winchester_star/watts-expands-mission-to-help-the-homeless-unveils-new-logo/article_d0fc34fd-e42c-5521-95c3-cadc70e5e949.html

WATTS Fundraising Dinner

Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter Executive Director Robyn Miller (left) poses Saturday with Steven Cunningham, winner of the WATTS Volunteer of the Year award. WATTS, which formed in 2009, has grown from an organization that provides temporary overnight shelter each winter to one that offers a variety of year-round services to the homeless. Courtesy photo

WATTS Fundraising Dinner

The nonprofit Winchester Area Temporary Thermal Shelter organization revealed its new logo (above) Saturday night during its annual fundraising dinner. Courtesy image

The Wizard of Oz Fundraiser

Join the gang from the Wizard of Oz at this year’s annual fundraiser on August 10 at the West Oaks Farm Market & Event Center from 7 – 10 pm.

We’ll have a magical, wizardly evening in Oz partying with life-sized characters like the heartless Tin Man, the brainless Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion and Dorothy. We’ll dance to rock and roll hits from The Movin’ On Band. Enjoy delicious cuisine from the Fresco Kitchen featuring Glenda the Good Witch chicken pasta and the Wicked Witch of the West pasta primavera… to name a few.

Thank you to our sponsors

Wonderful Wizard

The Gale Guild, Uncle Henry and Auntie Em

The Dorothy Gale Society

The Covenant Witches, Glenda & Almira Gulch

The Endearing Munchkins

For more information on this event, contact event chairperson, Janie Dickens-Bowman, at jdickensbowman@thevillageatorchardridge.org.

 
 

An interview with The Valley Today with Janet Michael on The River

 

 

An interview with Barry Lee of WINC 92.5 FM for his early morning show, Community Corner.

 

Here are some scenes from last year’s event at the Cloverdale Barn:
×

Support WATTS year-round!

Just $10 a month can change the life of someone experiencing homelessness in Winchester, Frederick, and Clarke County.