Et cetera : NCCC’s Cedar 6 Finds a Home Away From Home

By: Cedar 6 AmeriCorps NCCC team Cedar 6 is in Bloomington, IL working with Home Sweet Home Ministries for their sixth and final project. It has been an eventful service year for the team. They were pulled off their last two projects and asked to help aid disaster relief efforts for flooding in North Dakota and the 2011 Joplin Tornado. Home Sweet Home Ministries is a non-profit organization that was established in 1917 by Billy Shelper and has been serving the homeless and hungry ever since. They offer various services including shelter, hot meals, clothing vouchers for their thrift store “Mission Mart”, counseling, classes, children’s programs and much more. The team had the honor to help Home Sweet Home prepare for and move their warehouse operations. The sales at Mission Mart play a big part in financing all of the services that Home Sweet Home provides to the community. They get a lot of donations from the public which they store in a warehouse to be processed and put in the store. Home Sweet Home recently secured the funds to purchase a new, bigger warehouse that would allow them to store more items and increase the efficiency of their retail operations. The move was a big task so Cedar 6 stepped in to help. The team worked hard to get the warehouse ready for occupancy. They did a lot of painting, carpeting and cleaning. They also built pallet racking and other shelving units to help with organization. Once the warehouse was ready Cedar 6 became part of the moving team and helped load trucks to haul everything from the old warehouse to the new warehouse. The opening of the warehouse was a huge event for Home Sweet Home Ministries and the team was able to be a part of the celebration. They participated in the “Faith Walk” which was a walk from the Billy Shelper Center (the homeless shelter) to the new warehouse where the ribbon cutting took place. It was a big deal not only to Home Sweet Home but also to the community and many came out to show their support. The team is now part of the Home Sweet Home family and helping in all areas of operation. An NCCC member can be found in any area. There are team members working around the shelter helping with maintenance projects, some helping receive donations, some loading and unloading trucks, and some at the warehouse organizing and doing maintenance projects. Cedar 6 is ending their service on a great note with Home Sweet Home Ministries.