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To Help the Homeless located in within the District of Columbia, call 1-800-535-7252 or 311 for Shelter Hotline Outreach, Transportation and referral services. These services are only provided to Homeless persons located in Washington, DC. Shelter Hotline does not provide services in Maryland or Virginia.
Categories: Weather
Hypothermia season may have officially ended on March 31, but that doesn not mean that the danger of hypothermia is gone until November. If anything, spring is prime hypothermia weather.
Everyone, including the guests coming into our center, is shedding their winter gear. Fine when one has a warm place to go at night, but not safe when one is homeless. Now that the hypothermia shelters have closed, the number of people back on the street at night, bracing the rain and wind, has increased.
An email I received today quoted the National Alliance to End Homelessness and their report Winter Homeless Services: Bring Your Neighbors in from the Cold:
According to Dr. James J. O’Connell from the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP), the most dangerous cases of hypothermia do not occur when the ambient [surrounding] temperature is far below freezing. Instead, Dr. O’Connell says, the worst cases they see arise when the days are warm (between 40 F and 50 F) and the nighttime temperature drops to the mid-30s.
We are always in need of socks and underwear. Dry, clean base layers are crucial to staying healthy and warm. Bring them to our center: 1041 Wisconsin Ave, between 10am-5pm during the week or 10am-2pm on the weekend.
It’s November 1, which means that hypothermia season has officially started. We’ve all felt the onset of colder weather, especially with the flurries last Saturday, and we should all take care to prevent hypothermia. Winter is an especially difficult for the thousands of homeless people in the region, but one of the simplest steps you can take to help is to call the Hypothermia Hotline at 1-800-535-7252 when you see someone in need. The Shelter Hotline can provide transportation to emergency shelters and distribute items such as blankets, gloves and jackets.
Read on after the jump to learn more about the causes and symptoms of hypothermia.
Categories: Weather
One of my favorite feelings when it’s cold out is to put on a pair of warm socks and curl up with a book and mug of hot chocolate. Working at GMC has made me greatly appreciate the feeling of warm, dry feet. Our guests come in asking for a pair of socks, especially during rainy spells like right now, and we have none to give them. Please help us keep their feet warm and dry by donating socks. We’ll take them new or used, as long as they’re clean. We’re could also use men’s underwear and sweatpants.
Bring donations to Georgetown Ministry Center. We’re open seven days a week: Monday-Friday from 10-5 and Saturday/Sunday from 10-2.
Thanks for all of your continued support! I’m ending this post with a copy of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 73. — Stephanie
That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin’d choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou seest the twilight of such day
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth take away,
Death’s second self, that seals up all in rest.
In me thou see’st the glowing of such fire
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must expire
Consumed with that which it was nourish’d by.
This thou perceivest, which makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou must leave ere long.
Tags: Call to Action, socks
We are asked all the time, “What do you need?” We often fumble with the answer, but today I have an urgent need. Washcloths, socks, and underwear (clean of course). The wash clothes walk out of the place as fast as I can buy them. Some would like to inventory them and sign them out and in. I would rather increase our supply. If they need the wash clothes let them have them. I suspect they use them to keep clean when they are out on the street. It is such a small thing but it would help so much if people out there could donate their tattered, old wash clothes.
It has been raining. Raining hard. The creek is up, the river is up and socks and shoes are soaked. Can you spare some socks? Our guests would love it.
Underwear are always in demand. New or used but clean please.
Thanks for your support! It is so important to us.
gunther