Liz is not typical of the volunteers we feature in this newsletter. For one thing, she has never actually volunteered at Friends In Deed! In fact, she works at Union Station Homeless Services, and is married to Friends In Deed staffer William Shelby – so she is practically one of the family. But back when the Bad Weather shelter first began, before Friends In Deed was even involved, Liz was one of the first volunteers helping to run the new program.
At that point, BWS was just a bunch of cots and scratchy army surplus blankets in the Salvation Army gymnasium. There was no meal provided for the clients – just coffee and donuts or whatever else had been donated. Volunteers – and it was almost all run by volunteers in the days before FID took responsibility for the shelter – had to drag out a huge clear plastic tarp to protect the gym floor at the beginning of the evening, and if they wanted to have any kind of overnight comfort, they had to bring their own sleeping bag.
But Liz says it was an amazing experience to be working with such an idealistic, like-minded group of young people – people who were excited to be part of this grass-roots initiative, and hoping to make a difference. And the Shelter has been making a difference in the lives of people on the Pasadena streets ever since.