Gloversville emergency shelter in need of volunteers

The city of Gloversville has been operating an emergency Code Blue shelter for two months, and they are still in need of volunteers.

Because of staffing issues, there were two nights last week when they could not open their doors. Gloversville Mayor Vincent DeSantis even had to spend a few nights volunteering due to their staffing situation.

Especially with the recent snow, the mayor wants to make sure those who are homeless have a warm place to go.
The shelter is located on Third Avenue. It is open from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m. any night it is below 32 degrees. Inside, there is a kitchen area and two separate rooms for men and women.

The shelter has nine volunteers. At one point, they had five volunteers, but four more people agreed to help. However, DeSantis says if they had more people, it would make the work load easier for everyone.

Catholic Charities is going to provide a $100 gift certificate for any volunteer that spends the night.

All volunteers have to go through training. For more information on how to become a volunteer, contact Marcia Weiss at (518) 774-5114.

Learn about how many people the mayor ideally says he would like to have by watching the video of Jonathan Hunter’s story.