100 people sitting in a room, facing a projector screen, and still we decide to go around the room and introduce every person, one-by-one. A sigh and a passing thought of how much time this is going to take, until the comments people have are so riveting, the time flies and I want more.

For Project Homeless Connect 2010 volunteers, Whatcom Volunteer Center held information sessions to orient people to the event. We have had two sessions so far, both filled with 100 people each. Now, those 200 people total have a better idea of what homelessness in this community looks like and they can do something about it.

In the personal introductions, the participants were asked to share 1) their name 2) if they volunteered at PHC 2009 and 3) why they want to volunteer for the 2010 event. Probably about 50% of the volunteers in the room were returning after volunteering in 2009. And a lot of responses to ‘why would you like to volunteer this year?’ involved:  ”I’m excited to get involved,” “I think this is a worthwhile event to volunteer for,” “I just want to volunteer my time to help.” All of those are fantastic reasons to volunteer. But then there were the few people who introduced themselves and gave everyone in the room goosebumps.

One lady expressed that her son is an addict and he is homeless, and all she wants to do is help someone else’s kids from being homeless themselves.

A man told the story of how he was a guest guide for a guest who was in a lot of pain and extremely jaded and gruff. By the end of the day they had held many conversations about life in general, the day ended with an unexpected hug, and they still see each other and even get together for lunch once in a while.

See more touching stories in last year’s blog.

Stories like this are enthralling and real. It was amazing to have such a diverse group in one room, coming together as neighbors who care about this issue of homelessness. And it reminded me: everyone has a story. The guests AND the volunteers who participate in Project Homeless Connect have a story. All these stories are what make our community’s story, and we are continuing to make this story better for everyone.