From PADS Board Member Denise Gaska: "Our local PADS organization works with churches to provide overnight shelter to homeless people in Grundy County every night of the week from mid October to mid May. When PADS first started providing shelter about 8 years ago, we had just one church for a one month trial period. When we opened up the next season, we had seven churches involved. Now, as we make plans to open in October, we are down to just 4 churches carrying the load for the entire community 7 nights a week (3 of them opening up 2 nights in a row) in a town where churches *are* more plentiful than bars. If you'd like to help PADS provide shelter to people who have no where else to turn and just need someplace warm and safe to sleep...let me know what night you'd be able to volunteer once a month and I will hook you up with the volunteer coordinator for the church that is open that night, which would be Peace Lutheran (Sun, Mon), First United Methodist (Tues, Wed), Immaculate Conception (Thurs, Fri) or Living Word Bible (Sat). Shifts are as follows: 6:45 pm-10:45pm; 10:45pm-2:45 am; 2:45am-7:30am. We only ask volunteers to do one shift a month because two of the shifts mean you do lose some sleep or have to adjust your sleep schedule for that night. But if you think you can help more often than that, just let me know. Homeless people aren't always easy to love, but we were never told that showing Christ's love would be easy."