Serving the unseen

EPHRATA — Cold weather and a tough economy can be a nasty combination, and sometimes people fall unseen through the cracks. 

“One lady … her son had to be on a special medicine that cost a lot, and she had to make a choice, to choose the medicine,” said Barb Bickle, one of the volunteers at His Helping Hands in Ephrata, on Monday. “Because she was able to come in and get coats and hoodies and shoes and boots that actually fit, all that stuff that she needed, then she was able to actually buy the medicine and provide food for her kids.” 

His Helping Hands, located in the former Grant County Journal building in downtown Ephrata, has a supply of winter clothing: hats, coats, socks, gloves, whatever folks need to get through a winter. It’s largely a ministry to the homeless, but not entirely; many families find themselves coming up short when the icy winds begin to howl. 

“It’s not just the homeless,” said Cathy Vomenici, another volunteer. “It’s open to everyone. We get a lot of families, especially, because we open in November, getting ready for school. We’ve had a lot of kids come in today because it’s a holiday and they’re out of school.” 

“They get coats and things like that because coats are very expensive,” said volunteer Chris Purdy. 

His Helping Hands started out as an outreach of a single church in 2011, said Dawn Prince, who heads up the ministry.  

“It started out as a one-time event where we were going to hand out coats and hoodies to the homeless and feed them a Christmas dinner,” Prince said. “We had two events planned, one in Moses Lake and one in Ephrata. We advertised really well; we walked up and down the streets plastering fliers, collected thousands of coats and served 35 people.” 

The trouble, she said, was that it had been called a homeless dinner. The next year, they left the “homeless” tag off and got 70 people. Eventually the dinner and the coat ministry separated and today His Helping Hands serves about 1,000 people every year. 

“Everybody gets a coat, a hoodie, socks, gloves, scars, hats, shoes, snow boots,” Prince said. “Then we have a special room for people who are sleeping outside. We give them hand warmers and thermals and flannels and sleeping bags. It shocks me to know that people are sleeping outside, but they are, so we try to help them at least stay warm.” 

The Christmas dinner is still going on as well, Prince said. It’s hosted at Our Redeemer Presbyterian Church and served 625 people last year. His Helping Hands provides gift bags for the children at that dinner, with a stuffed animal, a wrapped toy and a stocking with toys and candy. 

The nonprofit was housed for a while in the former Haley Office Supply building, but opened Nov. 2 in their new location at 29 Alder St. SW. Since that time, Prince said, they’ve already had about 300 people come through and get warm clothes. 

“We have such a fabulous community that all this stuff comes in,” Vomenici said. “It’s funny, I’ll see something come in and pretty soon someone will come in and that’s exactly what they need. It’s so cool when that happens.” 

The clothing is only available to each person or family once, volunteers said, and they do keep track to prevent someone from collecting the free goods and reselling them elsewhere. His Helping Hands also offers hygiene packs, which include towels, soap, feminine products, toothpaste, toilet paper and more.  

The new location is much larger than the previous one, which means His Helping Hands can expand its services considerably. Prince said the plans down the road are to offer regular meals, as well as an area with computers for people who want to apply for jobs and social services, and laundry facilities so homeless people can wash their clothes. The ministry offers a free meal the first Monday of every month, which Prince hopes to increase down the road by putting in a full kitchen. 

“The vision for this building is huge,” Vomenici said. “I mean, it’s grandiose. God’s at work in this area. It gives me goosebumps.” 

On the wall of the new location is a mural with a verse from the Book of Genesis, originally spoken by a woman who had been cast out on her own with no other support: “You are the God who sees me.” 

“It fits us,” Purdy said. “God sees everybody.” 

His Helping Hands 

Open Sat. & Mon.  
November-February
10 a.m.-2 p.m. 

29 Alder St. SW, Ephrata 

Saturdays and Mondays 

Free lunch first Mon.  
of each month:
11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. 

    His Helping Hands director Dawn Prince stands in the room of the ministry’s new location devoted to sleeping bags and winter wear for people who have to sleep outside.
  

    The new location for His Helping Hands in Ephrata has lots of room for winter clothes for people of all ages and sizes.