St. Patrick Parish ministry houses the homeless

By Christina Galeone | CFP Correspondent

WHITINSVILLE  – In this season of God’s love and grace, it’s the perfect time to think about how we’re sharing our blessings. Fred Beauregard, a parishioner at St. Patrick Church, said that his parish wants to follow the call from Jesus to help those less fortunate by sharing its blessings and by being “a ray of hope that they don’t get every day.”
“We want everyone to feel that someone cares,” said Mr. Beauregard. “We want to let them know that we’re listening,” he added.
This past winter, the parish did so by starting a new ministry to help the homeless in its community. It became a host church for the Blackstone Valley Emergency Shelter. Because of its kindness, people were able to have a warm, safe place to sleep on nights when they would have had to stay out in the cold.
Founded in 2016 by green-cleaning coach, expert and author Leslie Reichert, the Blackstone Valley Emergency Shelter is based out of the United Presbyterian Church of Whitinsville, the church to which Mrs. Reichert belongs. The founder – who feels she was called by God to open the shelter after she heard about a homeless mom and her children sleeping in nearby Salvation Army bins, and after encountering other homeless people – was able to open the shelter at her church from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. on nights in which the temperature felt like 15 degrees or less (based on a number of factors), or if there are at least three inches of snow on the ground. But since an emergency shelter can only open for a maximum of 35 days a year, she sought other churches to also serve as hosts.   
 When Mr. Beauregard, who is St. Patrick’s shelter coordinator, read an article about the shelter and how it was in need of other churches, he felt called to get his parish involved. He approached Father Tomasz Borkowski, the pastor, who embraced the idea. After Mrs. Reichert told Mr. Beauregard how to get the church certified by the state as an emergency shelter, St. Patrick’s went through the process, received certification and asked parishioners to donate restaurant gift cards, blankets and pillows. Mr. Beauregard and his wife, who also helps with the ministry, are grateful for the outpouring of generosity from the parishioners. Not only did they collect what they requested, they also received many donations of socks and gloves.  
Despite the hard work, Mr. Beauregard said that it’s been “a blessed journey.” Seeing how much the shelter has helped people in need brings joy to everyone. It gave a girl who was in an abusive relationship a place to stay until she was able to find a safe place to live. It helped a man struggling with addiction to get into a rehabilitation program. And it offered hope to a 70-year-old under-employed woman, who had lost her subsidized housing and had been living in her car, until she was able to move in with her sister. Mr. Beauregard recalled that the woman cried so much when she arrived, because she never thought she would be homeless at her age.
“We must have played cards for four hours and talked,” he said, adding that the experience really touched him. “You know when you get the feeling that you’ve seen the face of Jesus.”
Mrs. Reichert agrees that the volunteers’ lives are enriched as much as those of the people they help. “The shelter volunteers are extremely thankful for the opportunity to serve,” said Mrs. Reichert, who’s equally grateful for their help and the help of St. Patrick’s Church. “It’s really awesome.”
 It’s brought her great joy to see at least five people “graduate” from the shelter system. They’re able to get off the streets after they are conneceted with resources such as transportation, addiction rehabilitation and mental health support.
“It’s more than a warm place to sleep,” shared Mrs. Reichert. “It’s a step up or hand up to the next thing they need.”
And while the Blackstone Valley Emergency Shelter and St. Patrick’s Church are already preparing for next winter, Mrs. Reichert has dreams of expansion.
“One of the things I wish we had is a place for people to go during the day,” said Mrs. Reichert, who would love to have a place where the homeless could get mentorship and computer access to apply for jobs.
Meanwhile, she would love to see four more churches make the same commitment that St. Patrick’s (and Pleasant Street Christian Reformed Church in Whitinsville) made. If more area churches could share their blessings by being hosts, the shelter could be open seven nights a week during the winter, she said.  

– For more information about the Blackstone Valley Emergency Shelter, visit www.whitinpres.org/shelter. To make a donation or contribute gift cards to St. Patrick’s shelter ministry, please send to St. Patrick’s Church, 7 East St., Whitinsville, MA 01588. To find out more about what Leslie Reichert does when she is not sheltering the homeless, please visit her website, www.greencleaningcoach.com.