The floor was mopped. A hygiene kit was set on a table. Lamps were brought in.
Elizabeth Baumgartner doesn’t know who will live in the room at Pathways for Women in Lynnwood, a YWCA shelter for homeless women and their children. It could be a woman with seven children, or it could be a lone woman fighting alcohol or drug abuse.
Whoever lives in the room, Baumgartner wants them to find comfort and hope.
“There’s another way. They don’t need to be stuck on welfare,” she said recently as she cleaned the shelter with other volunteers.
Baumgartner leads Proverbs 31:20 Ministries, which supports homeless shelters in Snohomish and King counties. The all-volunteer group cleans shelters, helps homeless women navigate the court bureaucracy and provides an annual summer camp for their children.
The volunteer group puts in about 90 hours a week helping women turn their lives around. Jenni Cook, 19, has been with the group for about five months.
“It’s hard work, but it’s fun,” said Cook, an Edmonds Community College student.
The group’s name speaks its mission, Baumgartner said. Proverbs 31:20 in the Bible reads: “She extends her hand to the poor and opens her arms to those in need.”
The group has helped many homeless women, Baumgartner said.
“If somebody has a need, we will help them,” she said.
Baumgartner, 40, grew up in Missouri. Her mother was on welfare. Baumgartner gave birth to her first son at age 16, was poor and saw many people struggle with drug and alcohol abuse.
Baumgartner now lives in Mill Creek, raising two sons and a daughter. Her husband earns enough money to support the family, which Baumgartner sees as a blessing.
About six years ago, Baumgartner decided she wanted to help less fortunate women, so she and friend Keri Berger founded Proverbs 31:20.
There are so many women who need help that the group can’t assist all of them, Baumgartner said. But even touching one woman’s heart is worth all the hours of volunteering, she said.
“Life is not today. It’s an eternal thing,” she said.
Yoshiaki Nohara is a writer for The Herald in Everett.
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