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Have you heard about Gifts for the Homeless? They are an amazing wholly volunteer-run non-profit that helps the homeless in Washington D.C. Every winter, they collect either clothes or funds to purchase cold weather items to donate to area shelters, outreach programs, soup kitchens, and transitional homes.

This year, we received a box of men and women’s underwear, a box of thermal socks, and a box of knit hats from GFTH right when the weather started to get really cold. We were able to give everyone in our center at least 2 pairs of socks and a hat to help them through the cold nights. Thank you so much, Gifts for the Homeless, for thinking of Georgetown Ministry Center’s guests this winter season! Keep up your good work.

Last Thursday, twelve University of Michigan students came to volunteer at GMC as part of their alternative spring break trip. We first led these students on a two-hour walk around Georgetown and Foggy Bottom to conduct street outreach and pass out toiletry kits. We saw a lot of people on the street who were very happy to receive a toothbrush, shampoo, hand sanitizer, and tissues.

Afterwards, the group came back to GMC where they split up. Half of the group hung out with our members and started a very intense Scrabble game that had members, students, and staff gathered around. The other half worked in our clothes closet and put together a clothing rack to hang out all of the coats we had received from Water Street Gym’s coat drive.

Thank you, University of Michigan students, for spending your spring break helping those less fortunate! We loved having you here and hope you come back next year.

Help the Homeless Art Contest

Every year, Fannie Mae hosts the annual Help the Homeless Art Contest, a leading component of the Help the Homeless Program’s public awareness and fundraising campaign. This year, we invite students from area schools and children’s organizations nationwide in grades K through 8 to participate in the 2013 Help the Homeless Art Contest.

The 2013 Help the Homeless Art Contest encourages students to express their artistic talents to produce creative artwork that represent home. There will be one student chosen to have their artwork featured on the Help the Homeless website, in social media, and on other promotional items.

Artwork must be submitted by Friday, March 29, 2013. Please click the links below to read the official guidelines, the waiver, and to view past winners.

Help the Homeless Art Contest Guidelines

Help the Homeless Art Contest Waiver

Help the Homeless Previous Art Contest Winners

We are happy to announce the start of our very own clothes closet! When we renovated our center in 2011, we decided to knock down a few walls in order to create a space for our guests to come, sit, and hang out. Doing so meant getting rid of our clothes closet and turning away most clothing donations due to lack of storage space.

A year and a half later, we have transformed a tiny office in Grace Church into our clothes closet! And, having a clothes closet means that we can accept clothing donations again (in limited quantities; the room is still small). The closet is currently being organized and manned by two enthusiastic Georgetown University students, Alex and Kathryn. They have been coming in once or twice a week to organize incoming donations and to distribute clothing every Friday at 10am. Needless to say, our guests are ecstatic about this news.

If you wish to donate clothes, please call Stephanie (202-338-3801) ahead of time to check whether or not we are in need of certain items. We will be posting on our blog, Facebook, and Twitter items that are in high demand. Right now, there have been many requests for jeans, with 32-36″ waists being the most in demand sizes. Our guests also often request belts, since it is difficult to acquire well-fitting pants on the street.

Jane is one of our stellar volunteers. Just about every Tuesday for the past ten months, Jane has faithfully come into our center to help with anything that needs to be done. She manages our computer lab, distributes sandwiches, and provides camaraderie and conversation.

She first heard about GMC at Holy Trinity Church, where she is a parishioner. We look forward to seeing Jane’s smiling face every Tuesday. Read more about her in Holy Trinity’s latest bulletin.