Shelter Searches for Winter Break Volunteers

Every winter vacation, intersession, and spring break, the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter, commonly referred to as UNILU in reference to the University Lutheran Church in whose basement the shelter is housed, must search for volunteers to work during the weeks that most students are at home enjoying their breaks.

The shelter, which provides lodging and food for Cambridge’s homeless every night from 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., is run entirely by Harvard students. It operates from November to April, meaning that its operation sometimes coincides with Harvard vacations, times when it is notoriously difficult to find volunteers.

In recent years, this problem has been partially alleviated by the creation of an e-mail list especially for those who can commit to UNILU during vacation. These volunteers, who are not regular staff members, are drawn from a larger group than the normal staff of Harvard undergraduates.

Often, the members of this list are people in the Harvard community or the broader Cambridge community who do not go home during breaks.

“A lot of people do it every Christmas and every intersession, people who have been back year after year,” explains Jill F. Stockwell ’08, the volunteer director-in-training who is coordinating the schedule for this year’s winter break. “The members that come over Christmas are for the most part a different group than the ones that come every day.”

Though UNILU is unaffiliated with the Lutheran Church, members of the church also contribute to fill the vacation gaps—for example, by donating food for UNILU’s kitchen, according to Stockwell.

In addition to the e-mail list of break volunteers, UNILU recruits by e-mailing as many lists as possible, such as House lists and other community lists on campus.

All volunteers commit to a certain slot which they must keep for the entire semester, but that slot does not include vacations.

Samuel R. Cross ’07, a regular staff member, said he has tried to do his share during vacations as well, volunteering twice last year.

“Usually I leave a couple of days later [for break] or come back a couple of days earlier,” he said.

Today, Stockwell’s job is far from finished, with many vacation slots still to be filled. But for many UNILU members, the effort is worthwhile.

“I just think it provides a really good service to the community,” Cross said. “For me, it’s been a great experience.”

­—Staff writer Dina Guzovsky can be reached at dguzovsk@fas.harvard.edu.