As a board member for the organization, I can tell you for certain that the event is a logistical challenge.
More than 9,000 households, spread across 28 square miles, divided into 53 zones – 35 driving, 9 walking, plus 4 driving zones in Pelham and 5 in Hadley. Five people per zone means at least 265 volunteer canvassers are needed to go out and knock on all those doors. And about 30 volunteers are needed to register, guide and orient them. That’s about 300 volunteers total, and that’s just on the day of the event.
Shelter Sunday began 18 years ago as a fundraiser for Rosemary’s Place, an emergency overnight shelter for women created by Amherst Friends for the Homeless (AFFH) and operated out of Southwood Apartments. According to the AFFH history, Rosemary’s Place operated for 15½ months, serving 70 women, before it closed its doors when The Grove Street Inn opened in Northampton. The group opted to continue the Shelter Sunday door-to-door fundraising event, shifting its focus to benefiting agencies that provide services to the homeless, in addition to shelter. Agencies supported by Shelter Sunday include: Not Bread Alone, Jessie’s House, the Amherst Survival Center, the Grove Street Inn and the Hampshire County Interfaith Shelter.
Since the beginning, local college students have been a big part of the canvassing effort. Tom Plaut handles the student recruiting for AFFH. He praised UMass’ Boltwood Project, a service learning program that provides about 100 volunteers annually to Shelter Sunday, and noted that Boltwood coordinator Nelson Santos “is always extremely helpful.”
Students from the UMass fraternity and sorority system make up the bulk of the rest of the door-to-door volunteers, typically sending 150 -200 representatives. Plaut cites the Greek systems strong tradition of community service, and said “Each house has a Philanthropic Chair (or similarly-named position) as a statutory office. They do a number of things to help out.”
Plaut encourages the students to wear sweatshirts with their house letters on them for the event, because “This is an opportunity for the people of Amherst to see and appreciate their good work.” The fraternities and sororities planning to participate this year are listed below.
Some non-student volunteers from the community also participate in the canvassing, while the majority of the volunteers on the common are recruited through their local faith communities. Bringing together many different elements of the community is a big part of the event’s success.
One of the ways Shelter Sunday ties in with the business community is through a generous sponsorship grant from Florence Savings Bank. Since 2001, the bank has provided funds to cover all the event’s administrative costs.
“We are so grateful that Florence Savings Bank continues to support this broad community effort,” said Arnie Alper, AFFH Treasurer. “Their sponsorship allows us to distribute every dollar raised by the event to the benefiting agencies.”
This year, AFFH has a new goal for Shelter Sunday: to raise more money than in the past, so that agencies can continue to be supported at traditional levels, and to also keep enough funds in reserve to be able to respond to emergency needs that can arise throughout the year.
To help meet that ambitious goal, people are urged to give generously on Sunday. In case your door gets missed, or you may not be home, please consider sending a check now to: Shelter Sunday Amherst, P.O. Box 1071, Amherst, MA 01004
-- Stephanie O’Keeffe
Board Member
Amherst Friends for the Homeless
UMass Fraternities and Sororities expected to participate:
Fraternities
Alpha Epsilon Pi
Alpha Phi Omega
Delta Upsilon
Pi Kappa Phi
Sigma Alpha Mu
Sigma Phi Epsilon
Sigma Tau Gamma
Theta Chi
Sororities
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Chi Omega
Iota Gamma Upsilon
Sigma Delta Tau
Sigma Kappa
