On Saturday morning, with the cold remnants of the first snowfall of the year beneath their feet and hot coffee from Dunkin Donuts in their hands, a few students joined in the third annual walk to benefit the Eddy Shelter, which is the only major homeless shelter in Middletown. The walk was intended to raise awareness of and money for the shelter, and turns people away every year due to a lack of funds.
During the walk, participants also took time to honor the deaths of the twenty-two homeless victims who have died in Middletown over the past few years, seven of whom died in 2004.
According to the Eddy Shelter, over the past year the number of homeless victims has increased but funding for shelters in Connecticut has not increased to meet the demand. So far this year, shelters in Connecticut have had to turn away 38 percent more homeless victims then last year, according to the shelter.
The mayor of Middletown, Dominique Thornton, welcomed participants and joined the walk. Mayor Thornton underscored the importance of being aware of homelessness in a brief address to the crowd.
“Any one of us could wind up in a situation like this,” Thornton said. “As winter arrives, the homeless disperse. To where, we don’t know.”
Some participants speculated that the low student turnout may have been due to the weather or the timing of the walk. Tamar Greenspan ’06, who works with the Eddy Shelter through the Office of Community Service, was especially disappointed with the turnout.
“I had hoped to get at least twenty students to come,” Greenspan said.
Instead, only two showed up. Greenspan said she doubted student turnout had been any higher in the past.
“There has never been much collaboration between Wesleyan and the Eddy Shelter,” she added.
To help prevent future tragedies, Carl Loges, the coordinator of Fabian’s Emergency Center, recently took the initiative in developing an emergency shelter in Middletown. The result, Fabian’s Emergency Center, opened this year in the Church of the Holy Trinity in an effort to give as many people as possible somewhere warm to stay during winter nights.
“It is important that we perceive the homeless in a different way and that they perceive themselves in a different way,” Loges said. “Not only do we give them a place that’s warm, we give them respect.”
Loges now devotes a large amount of his time to this shelter and said that when people ask why he does it, he responds, “We have to stop talking, and we have to start doing something about it.”
Peter Harding, who runs St. Vincent DePaul, a food pantry for the homeless in Middletown, stressed the importance of shelters.
“We need somewhere like Eddy Home for people to go to.”
Although the organizers also seemed disappointed by the turnout, they were grateful to those who did come out to support the homeless. Peter Nucci, the president of The Connection, Inc., thanked walkers for their generosity and their concern at the end of the walk.
John Robinson, the development director for The Connection, Inc., the Eddy Shelter’s parent organization, also thanked the walkers.
“The weather,” Robinson said, “reminds us what the plight of the homeless is.”
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