Like most of Evansville, Patchwork was shut down last week because of snow. However, our building wasn’t empty.
Because of the extreme cold that accompanied the snow, we wanted to make sure that no one was caught outside when they had counted on warming up at Patchwork. We knew we couldn’t get enough staff and volunteers to Patchwork safely to operate our programming, but John and I live nearby so we were able to walk over to be here to answer the door during Patchwork’s normal open hours.
Not many people stopped by. Hopefully that meant that most of our regulars had found a warm shelter and were staying in it. Only a couple people decided to come inside to warm up for a little. Several decided to keep moving and headed to their next destination for the morning.
One woman came to Patchwork’s doors and pounded on them frantically. She was experiencing a medical emergency and needed immediate help. She wasn’t one of our regular guests but had somehow known to come to Patchwork for assistance. John called 911 and assisted her while they waited for an ambulance to arrive. John was glad that he was here to help.
We began this week with a “soft opening.” Patchwork is officially closed whenever schools close because of the weather, and EVSC had cancelled on Monday. However, there were a few staff and volunteers who felt safe coming in, so we decided to open and provide limited services—mainly hot coffee, snacks, showers, and a quiet place for people to come in out of the elements.
On Tuesday, everything was open and we moved full speed ahead. Our main room was packed with the usual activity. Gail and Kate served up warm oatmeal, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, two pitchers of lemonade, and 11 pots of coffee. In the afternoon, the Arts & Smarts children’s program participants created cool and quirky snowmen using a variety of found objects. The rest of the week remained very busy as everyone began to venture out into the snow-covered world.