For Frank Roberts, working the front desk at the Everett Gospel Mission Men’s Shelter was like looking in a mirror.
“I think that’s what did it. I saw what I looked like when I first came in,” the 53-year-old Everett man said. “Wow, this was me.”
A Navy veteran, Roberts is a graduate o
f an 18-month Everett Gospel Mission disciple program. Once a drug and alcohol user who said he made his way on the streets, Roberts now lives in an Everett apartment. Last June he graduated from the mission program, which included life skills classes, help overcoming addiction and Bible studies.
He is thankful for the organization that reshaped his life and has an ongoing connection to the mission.
“It’s not a done deal,” Roberts said. “Since I graduated, they have asked me to speak at a follow-up graduation and invited me to their annual breakfast. The best part of the whole journey has been to volunteer and give back for what they gave me.”
On Saturday, Roberts will lace-up walking shoes and join other Everett Gospel Mission supporters at the “Walk for Hope Here.”
The 1.8-mile fundraising walk is a first in the mission’s 50-year history.
It’s scheduled to start at 8:30 a.m. Saturday with registration and a rally in a parking lot across from the mission’s Women and Children’s Shelter. The route will take walkers to the men’s shelter on Everett’s Smith Avenue. A post-walk breakfast will be served and the public will be invited to tour the shelter.
“Our residents will walk with us,” said Sylvia Anderson, the mission’s chief executive officer. “It’s a way for the community to see those who are in need of shelter, and those who are poor. It’s really about making a statement in these really tough times that we are in this together.”
Anderson said the walk’s financial goal is $50,000. Individuals are asked to donate $50 and teams $1,000.
“But if they don’t collect any money we want them to walk anyway,” she said. “We want that presence.”
She also said that having the event during the winter gives walkers a chilling sense of what the homeless deal with daily.
Beyond raising money, the walk is aimed at boosting the profile of the largest faith-based organization serving the homeless in Snohomish, Skagit, Island or San Juan counties. Anderson said many in our community don’t know that along with the men’s shelter near Everett Station, the Everett Gospel Mission runs the Women and Children’s Shelter and Lydia House, a transitional housing facility for single women.
John Hull is the mission’s director of development. He said $50,000 may be a big reach for this first-time event. “I think we’ll have a lot of walkers. I don’t know if we’ll meet the financial goal, but we also have outreach and awareness goals. Case managers and clients will be guiding people through the shelters,” he said.
The men’s shelter is now over capacity, he said. The facility provides free meals and housing for at least 140 men each night. There are about 35 women and children in the family shelter, and about 25 single women being housed, Hull said.
Roberts, who was helped while working at the mission’s front desk, is now involved at the VA Hospital in Seattle. He gets a Social Security disability payment and is working with the federal Department of Veterans Affairs on his pension claim.
Roberts said that when he left the Navy after 11 years, he didn’t believe he had post-traumatic stress disorder. “I went to drugs and alcohol,” he said.
Now, he helps facilitate trauma groups at the VA facility. He has a 12-year-old daughter, and is now building relationships with her and parents of teammates on her school sports teams.
He feels no shame about his association with the shelter. When he was featured in an Everett Gospel Mission newsletter, he said, “I felt proud about that.”
“I’ve become fully transparent. I’m not living a secret life,” Roberts said. “I’m one of the fortunate people, to be able to go through the mission’s discipleship program. I’m really thankful.
“It’s not just being clean and sober,” he said. “It’s getting a life — getting used to being in a normal life with people around you.”
Mission walk
The Everett Gospel Mission will hold a fund-raising walk starting at 8:30 a.m. Saturday.
The “Walk for Hope Here” will start with registration and a rally across from the Everett Gospel Mission women’s shelter in the parking lot at 5118 S. Second Ave., Everett.
The 1.8-mile walk will end with a breakfast at the mission men’s shelter at 3711 Smith Ave. Shuttles will take walkers back to their cars, or they can return on foot.
Walkers are asked to raise $50 per individual or $1,000 per team, but no walkers will be turned away. To register in advance or for information, go to www.walkforhopehere.com or call John Hull at 425-330-0108.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; muhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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