Community Corner

Shelter Offers Comfort, Food, a Dry Place to Stay - and a Little Adventure, Too

More than 20 people are already taking advantage of the shelter at Montville High School

At 9 p.m. tonight, the shelter at Montville High School was “hopping,” said Dawn Davis, the EMT and firefighter managing the operation.

Twenty-two or 23 people were checked in, Davis said, with more on the way. Young and old, adults and children, people from Montville and Salem and even travelers were checking in, Davis said.

Cots lined the hallway near the entrance door, with others in the cafeteria reserved for people who use oxygen and other devices demanding electricity, Fire Inspector Ed Shafer said.

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The cots, blankets and pillows came from the state, packaged together in bags you could sling over your shoulder.  Shafer said that Connecticut bought them after 9/11, and makes them available for emergencies like Hurricane Irene.

Davis and Shafer were joined by Davis’s daughter Laura, and Heather Goodling, 17, who was helping people check into the shelter. Her mom got her involved, she said, and she enjoys it.

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“I like helping people,” Goodling said. “It’s my passion.”

Democratic Registrar of Voters Lorraine Elliott has been an American Red Cross volunteer since 9/11. She had just gotten back from vacation, but, like Shafer, helped load the Red Cross trucks (for story, click here), and was helping out at the shelter, too.

Firefighter Michael Swanson picked up Montville folks who needed rides, and brought them to the shelter. Officer Mike Manley will be on site through midnight, when another officer will pick up the duty.

There’s food at the shelter, and water, cots and blankets, places for pets and crates to house them.

It’s a safe, dry place, with electricity and facilities of all kinds.

And it’s an adventure, too.

“You are going to meet people that you wouldn’t meet any other way,” Davis said.

 


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