Take steps to support shelter

Awhile back I wrote about the surge of energy behind the annual Hike for the Homeless that is scheduled for Saturday, May 5. In that column I promised to be among walkers converging on the Bangor Waterfront to raise funds and education about the plight of the homeless in this area.

Dennis Marble, executive director at the Bangor Area Homeless Shelter, read that column and just last week called to remind me of the words I had written. So this week I’ve dutifully filled out my registration form and convinced a few household members that a brisk walk for a good cause would not hurt them.

Today I’m urging you to pick up a registration form at the shelter on Main Street or at Camden National Bank on Exchange Street or at Trans-Tech Industries in Brewer. The form is brief and the registration fee is only $5.

While it’s the 12th annual hike, the event has been held previously on Mount Katahdin and Cadillac Mountain and raised between $4,000 in 1998 and $18,000 last year. This year organizers decided to toss some new energy into the hike by keeping it local. The shelter serves the entire Bangor community and beyond, and to punctuate that fact, this year’s hike will begin in four locations and end at the Bangor Waterfront near the Sea Dog.

There will be a cookout and a raffle with prizes such as an Old Town kayak, round-trip transportation on the CAT and a two-night stay in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a big-screen TV, and a night at the Samoset Resort in Rockport with dinner and golf included.

I don’t know that we want to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the homeless shelter, but as a community we certainly have a responsibility to recognize it. When it opened, the shelter was a 12-bed overnight facility managed primarily by volunteers. Today the shelter has 33 beds and is staffed by 12 professionals. There are on-site medical and mental health services provided at the shelter, a soup kitchen, an emergency food pantry and, most important, a safe place for the homeless to sleep at night.

The shelter provides help to more than 2,000 individuals and families each year as more appropriate housing and treatment options for them have been reduced.

Institutions regularly refer patients to the shelter as if it has somehow become an acceptable option for the poor and mentally ill.

The state and federal governments provide the shelter with only 28 percent of its revenues. As much as 44 percent of the revenues need to be raised through the community.

We all talk about the homeless when there’s a tragedy, such as last year’s death of 34-year-old Trevor Sprague, whose body was found burning beneath a Bangor bridge. But the truth is that the struggle of homelessness continues long after the issue has been bounced from the front page.

The homeless here and elsewhere are largely an invisible part of our population. On May 5, perhaps it’s time to stand up as a community and say we see you, we hear you and we’re willing to take a few steps to help out.

Hikers will gather at the Weatherbee School in Hampden and will leave at 9:30 a.m. for a 5-mile hike; at the Cianchette Building at Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems in Brewer, where hikers will depart at 10:15 a.m. for a 3.1-mile hike; at the Veazie Community School in Veazie, where hikers will leave at 9:45 a.m. for a 41/2-mile hike; and from the Bangor Baptist Church on Broadway in Bangor, where hikers will leave at 10:15 a.m. for a 3.4-mile walk.

It makes no difference what location you report to, and if you are unable to pick up a registration form prior to May 5, it’s fine to register on the day of the event.

Renee Ordway can be reached at rordway@bangordailynews.net.