Supporters Start Walking

ST. JOHNSBURY - As we get closer to winter, we all wonder how we are going to stay warm. St. Johnsbury offers a place for local youths to go if they need shelter. The shelter is open year round and not only during those colder winter months.

Elm Street in St. Johnsbury has become a shelter to many over the last three years. It is open for any youth between the ages of 15 to 22.  Kevin, who is staying at the shelter said, "In 2008 I moved into my apartment before I was ready and I had that for about 2 months and it fell apart and I have couch surfing ever since." Kaitlin, who has been staying there said, "I was living with a friend, and she was only allowed to have people for 2 weeks, and then after that I had to go on, otherwise she would have been evicted." Brady, who is planning on moving out soon said, "Why not and I like this place its actually pretty cool."

Inside the shelter there are a total of 10 rooms; five of those rooms being individual rooms and the other five being emergency rooms. Each individual room comes with a mini fridge and a desk to work on. The youth can stay in the rooms but have to be back by 10:15pm each night or they will not be allowed back in.

The annual shelter walk, which happened this past Saturday, helps to keep the shelter open throughout the year. When we had asked Wendy Graves, a transitional coach for the shelter, why people should support the walk she said, "They want us to support the homeless and help them raise money".

Wendy Graves was asked if the shelter would exist without the walk and then she responded, "I honestly don't think it would be.  It's our main fundraiser. We get a lot of grants, we are a non profit agency. We depend on this to keep the shelter open.

Carolyn, another supporter of the walk said, "And we are also avid supporters of the Community Action Northeast Kingdom Youth Services and the programs they offer there just amazing programs for the local community."

Supporters of the shelter walk were also there to help with the overall goal of the shelter.

Marion, Executive Director of Northeast Kingdom Youth Services said, "The goal for opening the shelter was that youth were coming to us. They were homeless they could have a place to stabilize because they were coming to us, didn't have a place to live, they needed to get a job, they needed to be in school and it was to much at the same time. So we opened the shelter in 2007."

Michelle also said something about the goal of the shelter, "We tell everybody, we don't want you to stay here forever. We want you to have your own apartment, we want you to have a job that you enjoy going to and that you can sustain a life with."

The youth don't plan on staying at the shelter forever; they want to move on to bigger and better things. Kevin, "I have been flirting with the idea of a tech. school, I'd like to find a job in the trades." Kaitlin, "My plan for the future is to have a job working with kids."

Michele, also said, "You know whether there 22 or 52 you know people need supports and sometimes there's not services there for them."

Although the weather didn't corporate this year the fundraiser is still hoping to raise around $25,000.

If you would like to get involved with helping out Northeast Kingdom Youth Services you can always call 1-802-748-8732.