Choirs sing to help homeless in Arlington
Published 10:29 pm Thursday, October 1, 2009
ARLINGTON — The Rev. Deena Jones, pastor of Arlington United Church, sat in her office one afternoon about a year ago seeking direction.
She wanted to start a community outreach program to help people in town. As she prayed, though, she admitted she didn’t know much about their needs.
When Jones left the church that day, she encountered four homeless people — not a common occurrence in downtown Arlington, miles off the I-5 corridor.
“I said, ‘OK, Lord, I get it’ and that’s how we got started,” she said.
What Jones and others started is Hands Together, a community group that helps homeless people and low-income families in Arlington.
The well-being of the entire community depends on those willing to work together to help others, Jones said.
“We are seeing more people struggling, and we have no homeless shelter in Arlington,” she said. “With our bad winter last year, we decided to focus on providing an emergency cold-weather shelter.”
Participation in Hands Together isn’t limited to churchgoers. However, a dozen congregations from Arlington and Marysville have stepped forward to provide the logistics and the choirs set to perform Sunday in a benefit concert for Hands Together, member Virginia Hatch said.
Proceeds from the concert will outfit an emergency housing trailer purchased through a grant from the Arlington Rotary Club and painted by Penway Printing. The city plans to store the trailer in the summer and church groups plan to host the trailer during the winter.
Hands Together hopes to raise enough money to buy about 25 bedrolls and other supplies for the trailer. Hatch said.
“We hope this will be an annual concert,” Hatch said. “With everybody working on a common cause we can address other areas of need in Arlington.”
Arlington assistant city administrator Paul Ellis, who plans to serve as the master of ceremonies at the concert, praised Hands Together for the group’s commitment to making sure nobody in Arlington suffers from the cold and rain.
“There’s big community support for this project,” Ellis said.
People who can’t attend the concert can donate to the effort or buy one of the $100 bedrolls, he said.
The concert includes gospel songs, spirituals and hymns performed by choirs from St. Andrew Orthodox Christian Church, Atonement Free Lutheran Church, Arlington United Church, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Cascade Christian Reformed Church, Marysville United Methodist Church and Our Savior’s Lutheran Church.
Arlington High School choral students, guitarist Brad Davidson. violinist Sarah Hall and cellist Aaron Hall also plan to perform during the benefit concert. The finale is a rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” sung by all the choirs under the direction of high school choir teacher Lyle Forde.
Along with fundraising for the emergency cold-weather trailer, Hands Together has a Brown Bag Brigade that provides a healthy sack lunch to food bank clients at 12:30 p.m. every Friday.
Arlington Community Food Bank manager Jim Scott said food bank clients are grateful for the lunch as they stand in line to get pick up donated food.
“I am so impressed with this community and the Hands Together folks. They are focusing on the segment of our population that travels below most everybody’s radar,” Scott said. “If people pull together, you can do some amazing things.”
Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427; gfiege@heraldnet.com.
Concert
The “Voices Together for Hands Together” concert to benefit an effort to feed low-income people and offer shelter to those who are homeless is set for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Byrnes Performing Arts Center, adjacent to Arlington High School, 18821 Crown Ridge Blvd. Tickets are $10 or $5 for children 12 and younger, and are available at the door or in advance at Flowers By George, Arlington Pharmacy and Stillaguamish Senior Center. More info: 360-435-3259.
