For further information:
Anne Engelhardt, Executive Director
PADS of Kendall County
(630) 553-5073
Kendall County PADS (Public Action to Deliver Shelter) is pleased to announce that it is the recipient of a grant from the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley. The grant of $6,519 will be applied to the capital costs of starting the shelter program that in its first season of service to the homeless people of the area. Kendall County PADS is currently averaging about 8 guests per night and recently as many as eleven.
The grant will cover the costs of 15 sets of basic supplies to equip each site: mattresses, pillows, sheets (slip-on mattress covers), blankets, towels, and wash cloths. Speaking for the entire organization of hundreds of volunteers, Anne Engelhardt, Executive Director, stated that “We are all excited and thrilled to have received the grant for the start-up costs. The grant is a tremendous financial boost to this new organization. We will be able to sustain this much-needed program to assist the homeless.” The application for the grant was prepared by Dollars & Sense, a Yorkville based fund-raising firm.
Opening on October 17, 2010, PADS will continue to serve the homeless every night through Saturday, April 16, 2011. From 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. the following morning, the program provides warm, safe, temporary shelter, mattresses and blankets for sleeping, a place to clean up, and nutritious meals, including a hot, home-cooked supper, breakfast, and a sack lunch for each of its guests.
PADS is a not-for-profit, community-based organization, which is dependent upon monetary donations and gifts. More than 500 volunteers from the county and nearby communities give their energy, skills, and time to staff the shelters throughout the season. They register and check in PADS’s guests, continuously monitor areas being used for eating, socializing, sleeping, and restrooms. Other volunteers work on food teams providing part of a meal, as well as serving and cleaning up afterward. In addition, each site has several drivers, who drop off dirty linens and pick up clean linens. Hospitality toward the guests at all times is demonstrated by the volunteers.
Serving as shelter sites are Cross Lutheran Church, Yorkville (Sunday nights), Yorkville Congregational United Church of Christ (Monday nights), Plano United Methodist Church (Tuesdays), Harvest Baptist Church, Oswego (Wednesdays) Trinity Church United Methodist, Yorkville (Thursdays), Church of the Good Shepherd United Methodist, Oswego (Fridays), and St. Luke’s Lutheran Church, Montgomery (Saturdays).
Information about Kendall County PADS can be found at www.kendallcares.org and on Facebook. To inquire about many different ways to serve as a volunteer, emailpadsvolunteers.kendallcounty@gmail.com or call 630-553-5073. To make a tax-exempt donation, write checks to “Kendall County PADS” and mail to 1204 Deer Street, Yorkville, IL 60560.
The Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley is a non-profit philanthropic organization that administers individual charitable funds from which grants and scholarships are distributed to benefit the citizens of the Greater Aurora Area, the Tri-Cities and Kendall County, Illinois. Further information about the Community Foundation is available at www.CommunityFoundationFRV.org.
