With much colder temperatures expected, some Northern Michigan churches are making sure no one gets left out in the cold.
The pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Cadillac said they are helping to support some of the community’s most vulnerable citizens but there are some changes in place for this year.
“I looked at the weather today and got some inquiries about staying here. And decided that now was probably as good a time as I need to open up,” said Horlocker.
Horlocker said they were planning to open up for the first cold snap of the winter next weekend but decided to push it up to friday.
“It’s actually going to be colder this weekend than next weekend,” said Horlocker.
He said he’s rallying his volunteers to make it happen now.
“We have a large fellowship hall. We call it a gathering space. So, it’s not too hard to set up, actually, it’s taking me about a couple hours to get things ready,” said Horlocker.
He said the shelter opened at Five Friday and will remain open until Monday at 9am.
Horlocker said there is one change, they are not able to provide beds for sleeping.
“We were told by the fire marshal that our buildings are not equipped. Basically, we don’t have a sprinkler system,” said Horlocker.
But the pastor they are making accomodations for napping.
“We do have some special chairs that we purchase for this. They’re not beds. So, I think they fly as chairs, the chaise lounge type, just so they can recline back a little bit and be a little bit more comfortable,” said Horlocker.
He said it’s better than the alternative.
“So, we’ll let you sleep, but there won’t be bedding. There’ll be chairs, tables, basically, things needed to warm up. There’ll be food, coffee and other warm beverages. We’ll have games. And the TV will be on,” said Horlocker.
Horlocker said providing shelter is a huge undertaking and they have reached out to other churches to try to share the burden, having a rotating schedule for which church will host the shelter and when but so far not a lot of luck.
“We’re not quite there yet. I guess if we’re going to rotate, we would rotate with the Salvation Army, you know, to help them out, which is what we did last year,” said Horlocker.
He said he’s still reaching out to other churches and some churches are supporting in other ways.
“The United Methodist Church, for example, applied for a mission grant to provide us funding for some of the things we would need to do this ongoing, " said Horlocker.
Other churches have offered food or volunteers for the effort.
“If we get one person out of the cold, it’s worth it,” said Horlocker.