Janice started volunteering at Inn from the Cold in September 2016 as a meal host. Three months later, she brought her children with her to drop some Christmas gifts off for the guests at the Inn. Her children had never been to the Inn before, so she started to give them a tour of the dining area and kitchen. “There was a girl in the dining area around my daughter’s age. This girl saw my daughter and excitedly jumped off the counter and approached my daughter asking if she was staying at the Inn that evening. I explained to her that we were dropping gifts off and we weren’t staying,” Janice says.
When they got into their car to go home, her daughter started to ask questions about the girl staying at the Inn. “‘But mom- she looked just like me’. And I told her that she was right – this girl looks just like her. Because homelessness could happen to anyone. There is no “look”, no area of the city that is better or worse – it’s something that can happen to anyone and we have to come together as a community to help those folks out. It’s our job as citizens.”
This was a powerful moment for Janice and her children, Janice says “it’s something that will be coming back to them in the years to come.”
