Category: What’s New

The holidays are upon us! As we move into this season of giving and gratitude, we hope you will consider supporting the 300 guests who will visit our Center this month.

Here are some ways you can make a difference for our guests:

• Check out our Amazon.com Wish List to see what items we need for guests at our Center. Your in-kind donations of socks and hand warmers are especially appreciated as we move into the coldest months of the year.
• Select GMC as your charity of choice on Amazon Smile. A percentage of all of your purchases made through the Smile program on Amazon.com will go toward supporting GMC’s work.
• Make a year-end donation. Your financial gifts provide us with the resources to: keep our Center open 7 days a week, 365 days a year; do weekly outreach walks to engage the most withdrawn and service resistant members of our community who are experiencing homelessness; maintain a winter shelter for 10 people throughout the coldest months of the year; and much more. Checks can be made out to Georgetown Ministry Center and sent to our office or you can donate online with a credit card.
• Donate through workplace giving programs. GMC is a member of the United Way (#9635) and CFC (#31661), and participates in the World Bank Community Connections and the International Monetary Fund Giving Together campaigns.
• Be a GMC ambassador. Tell your friends, family, and co-workers about GMC! Take it a step further and ask them to make a donation to GMC in honor of a birthday, wedding, or other celebration.
• Follow us on social media. GMC is on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, so follow us for updates about our work, as well as important information in case of a cold emergency.

Thank you for your support and we wish you a joyful holiday season!

For the next 2-3 weekends, GMC will be closed on Saturday and Sunday. If you volunteer or bring sandwiches on the weekend, we will be in touch to let you know the date we will reopen. (And if you don’t hear from us, please contact Beau Stiles, Program Coordinator, at beau@gmcgt.org or 202-338-8301 ext. 8)

We are hoping to resume regular weekend service in August 8 or 9.

Over the weekend, we learned that Joel Johnson, who came to GMC almost every day, was killed as he slept outside St. Luke’s Mission Center in Glover Park. The mood here at GMC is somber and contemplative. We are all wondering who would have done such a thing, and it is a sobering thought that an attack like this could happen to any of our guests who sleep on the street.

Gunther, GMC’s Executive Director, remembers Joel:

I don’t want to remember Joel as a homeless man. He was a gentle man who came to our Center almost every day. He was polite, reserved, and certainly a man of few words. Though we never got to know him well, we all liked him and thought of him as a positive addition to our program.

Joel slept where so many homeless people sleep, exposed to whatever the danger that lingers just around the corner. We lost a good friend who happened to be without a home.

Some of us knew Joel from the Center or from our winter shelter two years ago. Others knew Joel from the Saturday and Sunday dinners that are sponsored and hosted by several Georgetown congregations. We hope you will spare a moment to remember our friend and to keep all of our guests in your thoughts.

We are looking for a Fundraising Coordinator to join our team and help us grow the organization. Please pass along the job description to anyone who may be a good fit!

https://georgetownministrycenter.org/about-us/career-opportunities/

Last January, GMC partnered with Georgetown University’s Center for Social Justice to create a volunteer Hypothermia Outreach Team (HOT) to do street outreach on the coldest nights and to make sure that those living on the street in our community are safe.

WAMU featured the Hypothermia Outreach Team in a segment today. We think this is required listening and hope you will share it with your friends and family! It does a great job of telling the story and showing the interactions between our volunteers and those who stay on the streets.