“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.” Martin Luther King Jr.
Grundy Area PADS serves homeless in Grundy County. We offer shelter, warm meals, friendship and access to social services 7 nights a week from Oct-Apr. PADS is a volunteer based organization and needs your help! We are looking for folks to volunteer 4 hours once a month. We currently only have enough volunteers to be able to open for 2 nights a week instead of 7 like we hope to by Oct 16. If you are interested in helping please call Tammy Alvarez at 815-474-7899. Thank you!
UPDATE AS OF 9-15-17. THANK YOU!!! We have had some slots filled but we still need MANY more. The list below has now been updated with the available times needed. Please consider joining us!
More volunteers than these churches can provide are needed to operate. If you would like to help out at any of these sites, please let us know. If you go to another church not on the host site list and have volunteers who can help, please let us know. Please call Tammy Alvarez at 815-474-7899 to sign up. The shelter will be open to area homeless from Oct 16-April 13. We appreciate your caring hearts to make this work in our community!
HELP WANTED!!! The new Grundy Area PADS season is coming up quickly and there are still several volunteer time slots needed to fill! PADS is housed in 4 Morris churches from Oct. 16 through April 13. We need volunteers on all shifts at each site/each night. Shifts are 6:30 pm-10:45 pm; 10:45 pm-2:45 am; and 2:45 am to 7:00 am. We ask volunteers to do just one 4-hour shift each month. You won't be serving alone. We always have at least 2 volunteers per shift. There is training available. Please message us to volunteer or call 815.942.6389. Thank you for lending a hand this season!
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."
St. Vincent's Table is offering meals on Mondays in Braidwood from 5-6pm at Ignite Christian Church (1180 W. 1st St, Braidwood). Anyone needing a hot & nutritious meal is welcome! Please join them or help spread the word!
Anyone, anywhere can be the one to make a difference in the life of someone with a mental health or substance abuse challenge – if they know what to do and what to say.
Several of our PADS Board members & volunteers have taken the training to be certified in Mental Health First Aid. We invite you to join in learning more about how you too can make a difference. Here is a link to more about how you can get involved in this mission in our community: https://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/cs/bethedifference/
Welcome to Grundy Area PADS website & blog! We hope that here you can BE INSPIRED to do great works in our community. We hope the you will BE INSPIRED to make a real difference in the life of your neighbor. We hope the you will BE INSPIRED to learn more about homelessness and how you can help. Welcome!
Huge thank you to TNT Dance Studio! They worked hard and raised $450 for Grundy Area PADS. Plus we love the creative display they made to tell others about our mission. If you see a dancer be sure to tell them thank you for their generosity!
Luke 3:11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”
1409 N. Division St.
Morris, IL 60450
(815) 942-3245
Help@Grundypads.org
