April 18, 2018

Church of the Holy Trinity
381 Main St.
Middletown, CT  06457

Dear Friends,

The Warming Center has been closed for two weeks, despite the winter-like weather that has continued into this month. It is always difficult to close as many people come to rely on the Warming Center as their winter home. We’ve done our best to encourage our guests to find other options, including the shelter system, friends and family.

I want to thank you all at Church of the Holy Trinity for hosting this program for just over six weeks this season in December, February and March. Your hospitality is greatly appreciated by the guests and monitors. We use your chapel, the entryway, the bathrooms, the kitchenette, and we park a trailer outside for our guests’ belongings – that’s quite a lot of space and I’m sure that it presents some challenges on your end. This year we outgrew the trailer and ending up using the chapel to store the guests’ belongings during the day. Yet you continue, season after  season, to open your doors to the most at-risk and vulnerable people in our community.

We try to be good guests, but we do not always succeed. We realize that we often leave cigarette butts in the entryway outside, we fill the dumpster, and the floors aren’t always clean or vacuumed or left smelling nice. We put a lot of stress on the plumbing and heating systems. We also know it is difficult (and sad) to see so many guests huddling outside the doorway in the early evening waiting for us to open. Despite all that, you continue to welcome us, to partner with us, and to care for the poor and homeless.

This winter we served 215 unduplicated men (73%) and women (27%), averaging about 22 every night. There were 19 nights that we served more than 30, and one night that we served 40! About 25 of the guests stayed at the Warming Center for 6 weeks or more; 7 of them stayed almost the entire season. It amazes me that there are so many people who live “on the edge,” who don’t have a good and safe and permanent place to call home.

Thank you for being CHURCH – for actively living out your faith as caring people, for loving your neighbors as yourselves.

With gratitude and love,

Ron Krom
Executive Director
St. Vincent de Paul Middletown