Back in January, Mary Anderson, one of our Associate Care Pastors, came across an article in the Pioneer Press about how the Super Bowl would be impacting some homeless individuals and families. Typically, when shelter space runs out for those seeking temporary housing, the county has a certain number of hotel rooms they can host them in while they make space available. With the influx of tourism coming in for the Super Bowl, the county lost access to this option, leaving dozens of families without housing for the week of the event.
Unsure it would even be possible, Mary hopped on the phone with Ramsey County and asked if they still needed space for these families to go. They gratefully asked if Woodland would be willing to act as the overflow location. Our Care Team got to work and in a very short window of time, over 30 volunteers stepped forward to meet the challenge.
In the end the county, thankfully, did not have much need for overflow space. This ended up being a huge miracle for the families that Woodland did host. Because we have the space, we were able to give each family their own private spaces to sleep in—a huge blessing for one of the families as the children had special needs. Volunteers could interact 1-on-1 with kids and their parents. We provided them with a day pass to the Maplewood Community Center/YMCA on the weekends when the day shelter was unavailable.
Many small miracles came together so we could honor and care for these families in their time of need. We are so thankful to God for answering these prayers!
Way to go, Mary! So proud of you and all the volunteers! What a beautiful way of becoming the hands and feet of Jesus!