By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
Once a year the women of the Bennett family set out to "divide and conquer" a section of Northampton.
The three women - Bonnie Bennett, of South Deerfield, and her daughters, Gretchen, 34, of Holyoke and Remy, 30, of Easthampton - are Shelter Sunday volunteers, and go door-to-door asking for donations to benefit six area agencies that aid the local homeless population.
Since 1990 volunteers have used Shelter Sunday to ask people in Northampton, Florence and Leeds for donations. This Sunday will mark the 20th Shelter Sunday in Northampton. Volunteers - many more of whom are still needed - will be asking for donations 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday.
• Related story: Shelter Sunday beneficiaries
Over the course of a single year, almost 5,000 people in the Pioneer Valley experience some period of homelessness, close to half of whom are families with children, said Sonja Larson, United Way of Hampshire County's Director of Campaign and Community Investment.
"Our response from the people we meet is usually very positive," said Gretchen Bennett. "And we've found that there's enough community awareness about the fundraiser that a lot of people will leave envelopes for us to pick up if they won't be home.
"It is just a nice way to spend the day together and it has become a yearly ritual for us," said Bennett, who, on Sunday, will have volunteered for Shelter Sunday four years in a row. Bennett said she used to regularly volunteer to aid homeless people, but after she enrolled in college she had less time for charities. Being only one day a year, Shelter Sunday was a good fit with Bennett's time and eagerness to help her community, she said.
Still, volunteers are down for this year's drive at a time when services to help the homeless are being stretched.
Event organizers estimate that they need 100 volunteers to meet their fundraising goal of $50,000. They currently have commitments from about 35.
Last year, 70 volunteers raised more than $50,000.
While hard statistics are not available as to how many homeless people live in the region, data from the Hampshire County Interfaith Cot Shelter, an emergency shelter on Center Street in Northampton, indicates that the need is growing.
For example, homeless people slept at the cot shelter 2,724 times in 2001. In 2009, the number of occupied beds increased by more than 50 percent to 4,114 spending the night that year. These statistics count how many times the beds were occupied, not the number of people who slept overnight at the shelter.
MANNA Soup Kitchen is seeing a similar trend.
Elaine Ulman, who serves on MANNA Soup Kitchen's board of directors, said volunteers are seeing a steady rise in the number of people attending the organization's free meals. In 2009 from January to July we served 5,000 meals at our dinners and in 2010, in that same time period, we served more than 8,000, said Ulman who noted more young people have been attending the meals.
"Previously one or two youths would show up for a typical meal and now we are seeing 20 show up regularly which reflects the number of people out of work and youth out on the street," she said.
At an event planning meeting hosted at ServiceNet headquarters on King Street in Northampton last week, officials from the charity drive's beneficiaries - the Grove Street Inn, the Interfaith Emergency Shelter, MANNA Soup Kitchen, Northampton Salvation Army Service Center, the Single Room Occupancy Project's Outreach Program and Safe Passage - came together to brainstorm.
"Right now, finding more volunteers to help out is our key issue," said Yvonne Freccero, director of Northampton's Friends of the Homeless.
Organizers are also contending with smaller donations from area businesses.
"Some of our old faithfuls are still faithful, but at a much smaller level than years past," said Wendy Payson, ServiceNet's director of communications and development. "They are still helping us out; they're just really hurting right now because of the economy."
Unfortunately for the agencies looking to benefit from the fundraiser, Shelter Sunday donations are becoming more and more crucial as patronage increases and supplies from area food banks are depleted.
"Quantities available at food banks have steadily shrunk over the last few years, meaning MANNA has to purchase supplies from the supermarket which substantially increases the cost of dinner," said Jim Godfrey, MANNA's treasurer. "Shelter Sunday is extremely important to us, it is one of our main funding mechanisms."
Freccero says Shelter Sunday organizers are reaching out to area churches, colleges and nonprofits. Signs seeking volunteers will be handed out until the day of the fundraiser.
Monetary donations may be sent to Shelter Sunday, care of ServiceNet, Inc., 129 King St., Northampton. Those interested in volunteering can call Payson at 582-9508 or visit the organization's website, http://northamptonsheltersunday.org.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.
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