DOROTHY DAYHOSPITALITY HOUSE

Thank you to all of the House’s supporters and friends for all that you do to help the less fortunate in our community. It never ceases to impress me that the Dorothy Day House is all-volunteer-run, and that continues year after year.

As some volunteers need to stop volunteering due to their personal

situations, other new people are willing to volunteer.

The Dorothy Day House’s location near downtown Rochester seems to be a convenient location for our daily routine. Breakfast is served every morning. When the House closes at 9 a.m. on cold or wet days, many of our guests walk the short distance to get to

the shelter of the downtown buildings (including the library). Our guests may also take care of any business during the day, including trying to better their situa-tion. When the House re-opens at 4 p.m., we welcome our guests back. At 6 p.m., volunteers serve the guests a warm meal. This all repeats every day of the year (we stay open on Christmas day), all free of charge to our guests.

Our 23 beds are filled many nights. Additionally, we have visitor hours 7-9 a.m. and 7-9 p.m., for people to come in and sit down, and maybe grab a cup of coffee or a bite to eat, and perhaps a little conversation. Donations of time and money from the community make this all happen.

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

2019 NEWSLETTER

703 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55902www.dorothydayrochestermn.org

Jon Allen

Homelessness has reached a pandemic scale through-out the United States. According to most experts, there are three major types of homelessness: chronic, transitional and episodic. These experts have determined that there are four dominant causes for these types of homelessness: Poverty, Lack of Affordable Housing, Mental Illness and Substance Abuse.

Rochester has many fine resources to assist the people affected by these circumstances and to overcome the issues that are responsible for what these people are experiencing. Most of those resources employ staff and professionals to achieve these tasks. They don’t always see positive results as timely as their clients need. Shelter, hunger, warmth and comfort don’t wait for procedure and bureaucracy.

Fortunately, this community saw the need to fill a void in the sys-tem, even on a temporary basis. We have Dorothy Day, Women’s Shelter, Family Promise and more. These all require support that this community has never run short on; caring, compassion and dedicated volunteers.

Congratulations to volunteers retiring this year - thank you for your service. Welcome aboard to all the new faces - you will make a difference! (SW)

THE VOLUNTEER

CHANGE THE WORLD

“What we would like to do is change the world – make it a little simpler for people to feed, clothe, and shelter themselves as God intended them to do. And, by fighting for better conditions, by crying out unceasingly for the rights of the workers, of the poor, of the destitute – the rights of the worthy and the unworthy poor in other words – we can, to a certain extent, change the world; we can work for the oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world.

We can throw our pebble in the pond and be confident that its ever widening circle will reach around the world. We can give away the onion. We repeat, there is nothing that we can do but love, and, dear God, please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend.”

- Dorothy Day

We had a man that came to the house, just about every year, since shortly after the Dorothy Day Hospitality House opened its doors for the very first time. He was a ‘colorful character’ in every good turn of the phrase – someone we welcomed as a guest and friend.

He always said his visits to Rochester fell within the time of the year that, “was fit for a person to survive in Minnesota.” When I got curious enough to ask him, “What time of the year was that?” He answered, “Well, between the snow melt and the mosquitoes, of course.

I like the stars at night, indoors makes me nervous, but I don’t want to be cold, wet or bitten by something too small that I can’t use my walking stick to defend my-self.” You see, he was (and hopefully still is) a self-de-scribed ‘traveler’, not ‘homeless’. “I don’t want people feeling sorry for me,” he’d say.

It wasn’t long, before he was to continue on, that we had an opportunity to spend an afternoon together. As we ate lunch he told me that when he returned to his

hometown, after active duty in the Army, his wife had disappeared with the children and the house was gone. There was an empty lot, which a neighbor indicated, that after the house had been foreclosed on, burned to the ground. He claimed to have lost everything and there was no reason to stay amid the ghosts.

Right up to the last time I saw him, he maintained that there were still three undeniable truths in his life: 1) The band Credence Clearwater Revival was the first to put country soul to rock and roll. 2) That drugs needed Ted Nugent to get high! 3) The Dorothy Day Hospital-ity House was the only place that he truly felt welcome and accepted after coming home from a war he never understood and had cost him so much.

I haven’t seen this man since my return in 2015, I pray that we haven’t lost another friend. We strive to make a connection of caring and compassion with every guest or visitor we meet and serve – making a friend is love. (SW)

A GUEST OF MANY YEARS,A FRIEND FOR LIFE

Dorothy Day Hospitality House is a temporary shelter for those who find themselves in personal crisis and are in need of the basic requirements of life, including food, clothing and shelter. All persons in need are welcome.

We, in Rochester, embrace the principles of dignity, self-respect, and a positive appreciation of life. Like Dorothy Day, we value humans, individually and collectively.

Our volunteers endeavor to meet each guest’s need for survival and personal development, and to always respect their right to privacy.

We are responsible for one another and come together as a hopeful people from our various faiths, ministries, and occupations to provide a sense of community and caring.

Our funding, in keeping with the Dorothy Day philosophy, is made up of private donations from the community at large. Our staff of volunteers receives no payment other than the rewards of knowing that they have played an important role in helping others.

It is of utmost importance for our guests and volunteers to create and share a nurturing, pleasant environment which provides an attitude of caring and loving commitment.

Totally dependent on donations for funding and on volunteers, the DDHH has been following this philosophy for 35 years.

THE DOROTHY DAY HOSPITALITY HOUSE PHILOSOPHY

NURSING STUDENTS SUPPORT DOROTHY DAY

We can’t thank our rotating teams of nursing students from Winona State University (WSU) enough for their caring and enthusiastic presence in service of our guests and visitors. 2019 marked the fifth consecutive year of WSU nursing support.

Each Monday and Thursday evening throughout the school year, nurses check blood pressure levels, provide foot care, give haircuts, and much more. Just as importantly, they boost the spirits of our community members. Thank you!

HOUSE ENGAGEMENT

On August 17, local bands, vendors, and artisans came together in support of the Dorothy Day House for Foster Fest 2019. Headlined by the 9th Planet Out, the event raised several thousand dollars for the House and gave us the opportunity to share our mission with the Rochester community. A special thanks to Cole and Doug Ebertowski, as well as other event organizers for their support, and be sure to check out this fantastic summer event again this August!

Dorothy Day staff members had the opportunity to share how the House serves the community with the Kasson-Mantorville High School 2019-2020 Community Action class (pictured right). We had a great time meeting with their students!

A historic cold snap hit the Rochester area in late January 2019, with temperatures plummeting to lows of -30, with wind chills recorded in the -60 range.

The House was open throughout the day on January 30-31 to serve guests and keep them warm, even as frigid temperatures thickened the fuel in city buses to the point that service was halted!

This fantastic group of volunteers from Rochester Catholic Schools (pictured left) spent President’s Day diligently cleaning the House for our guests and visitors as part of their system-wide Day of Service. Your hard work was much appreciated!

In November as part of a school-wide service project, students at Rochester Central Lutheran School (RCLS) assembled toiletry bags for Dorothy Day House guests. As a result, RCLS families donated 1000s of items and assembled an incredible total of 636 kits for distribution. What a blessing! A special thanks to the Rochester MN Moms Blog for providing drawstring bags.

The Dorothy Day Hospitality House serves the community 365 days a year, and we had a great time host-ing guests and visitors this year on Christmas Day. The atmosphere was festive thanks to our volunteers, the beautiful tree (pictured left, courtesy of Ted W. Smith Insurance Services, Inc.), and gifts that we were able to share with guests as a result of the many holiday donations the House received.

Thanks to all who share their time and talents with us, especially around the holiday season!

• Prayers• Monetary donations• Gift cards• Paper supplies: paper towels, napkins, toilet paper, tissues, etc.• Laundry soap• Bleach• Dish soap• Dry cereal

• Coffee• Dry coffee creamer• Personal care items: small deodorants, toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, and chapstick• Men’s and women’s underwear• Warm hats and gloves• Sweatpants and sweatshirts of all sizes• New pillows• Backpacks

SERVE AT THE DOROTHY DAY HOUSE

There are several ways that you can serve our community at the Dorothy Day House.

Volunteers are needed for daily shifts at the following times:• 7-9 a.m.• 4-7 p.m.• 7-9:30 p.m.

Do you have a particular skill that you would be willing to share with us? We can always use medical, maintenance, and artistic skills among others around the House!

We are also in need of volunteers to cook and provide dinner for House guests throughout the year, and accept donations of snacks and baked goods.

If interested, please email ddhhouse@gmail.com

NEEDED ITEMS FOR DONATION

“People say, what is the sense of our small effort? They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time. A pebble cast into a pond causes ripples that spread in all direc-tions. Each one of our thoughts, words and deeds is like that. No one has a right to sit down and feel hopeless. There is too much work to do.”

- Dorothy Day

HOW CAN I HELP?

*Please note that we can no longer accept used clothing items.

In 2019, the issue of homelessness took a prominent and visible role in the Rochester community. While the count of unsheltered homelessness in Olmsted County has hovered between 400-500 for the past several years, larger numbers of this population began gathering within the city skyways, increasing community awareness of this critical issue.

Rochester Mayor Kim Norton and other city represen-tatives responded by creating a work group on home-lessness, shelter, and transitional housing as a way to uncover gaps in service, assess short and long-term needs, and identify compassionate solutions. Issues identified included rising demand for services, more effective coordination and communication among

service organizations in the area. and most critically, a lack of affordable housing.

The city also sought to find space for a seasonal Warming Center, which eventually opened downtown on 200 4th Street SE and can accommodate up to 30 guests. Through collaboration with Catholic Charities of Southern Minnesota, the Warming Center provides a second sleeping option alongside the Dorothy Day House for those in need through March 31. While the increase in public awareness has been beneficial in confronting homelessness in Rochester, additional community engagement throughout the year will be essential to alleviating the issue. Organi-zations like Dorothy Day House and many others will continue to lead the way as we seek solutions and find ways to provide people throughout the Rochester area with the resources, support, and dignified housing options they need. (RC)

SERVING A COMMUNITY IN NEED

Especially during the holiday season, the House received generous donations of food, baked goods and treats to share with our guests. We are incredibly grateful to all who think of the House and drop off items—toiletries, food, clothes, and more—to benefit our guests. You lift the spirits of those who join us each day!

Dorothy Day1897-1980

“The greatest challenge of the day is: how to bring about a revolution of the heart, a revolution which has to start with each one of us?”

703 1st Street SWRochester, MN 55902www.dorothydayrochestermn.orgddhhouse@gmail.comwww.facebook.com/ddhhouse

DOROTHY DAYHOSPITALITY HOUSE