DINNER FOR A CAUSE

Monday night at the Cove House Emergency Homeless Shelter annual fundraising banquet was a night for talking about numbers, but it was also a night for putting some faces and stories behind those numbers.

 

36-year-old Charisma Sanchez said she’d purchased a brand-new car, had a good job she loved, when she began passing out without a cause, initially. She was discovered to have one ventricle of her heart that wasn’t working properly and a one-day procedure turned into a 7-1/2-week hospital stay.

 

The single mother lost both her rented hom and her new car and was unable to work. She also feared her 12-year-old daughter would end up with CPS because she had no way to care for her.

 

“Then we were able to move into Cove House. We count every day a blessing because we’re together,” Sanchez said. The two are currently residents at the shelter while Sanchez is getting back on her feet and starting to work again gradually, now that she has a pacemaker implanted in her chest.

 

Sanchez’s story and the stories of other residents, along with numbers provided by Cove House executive director Brian Hawkins were framed by a Thanksgiving meal catered by the culinary department of Metroplex Hospital and both live and silent auctions of items donated by individuals and local businesses.

 

Monday night’s event helped raise $10,000 for the shelter. That amount doesn’t include the long-term pledges, such as the monthly “Giving For Living” donations, Hawkins said.

 

“I truly believe we help the homeless better than anyone around us,” Hawkins told those at the dinner. “We have an opportunity because of the support you give us to do more than just get them off the street for a night. We do more than just put a meal in their bellies. We give them an opportunity to be somewhere for several days, for several weeks. If they end up in the transitional housing program, for several months and have a real opportunity to do the things and take the steps to get back up on their feet.”

 

At other shelters, residents typically are required to leave between the hours of 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. daily and must take all their belongings with them.

 

Hawkins said this year the shelter has been able to help an average of eight people a month find gainful employment via the computer lab they have on site. Cove House staff also help individuals with their resumes.

 

Among the highlights of this year was the shelter receiving the deed to its properties from the City of Copperas Cove. For 2017, Hawkins said a big initiative will be replacing the HVAC units in all of the buildings.

 

In addition to the accomplishments of this calendar year, Hawkins also shared about what’s next for the shelter, especially its free clinic which sees patients every Tuesday in its office space at the Ledger Medical Plaza.

 

Within the next two weeks, the shelter’s free medical clinic will have a new, larger home. Hawkins said that in 2015, the shelter’s free medical clinic saw 671 patients. For 2016, the shelter had an estimate to see 850 patients, but Hawkins expects that total to be closer to 1,000 by the end of the year. In 2017, they could see as many as 1,500 patients due to this new, larger space.

 

Besides the main shelter itself and the weekly free clinic, Cove House also has a transitional housing program which is a longer-term aid for those leaving the shelter to get back into apartments or homes. Residents of the eight-plex apartment building receive budget counseling and pay a reduced rent while they save up the deposits needed to rent their own apartments or homes. This year, Cove House was able to replace all the appliances in the building, Hawkins said.