A Room at the Inn
As we enter into the holiday season, I write this letter wishing you and your family good health, grateful for the privilege to share how things are going at DuPagePads. Winter is a time when, in a regular year, we begin seeing increased numbers of people coming to our doors. This year is no exception in many ways—People of all ages have begun seeking refuge and assistance. In all our learning and experiences since the arrival of COVID-19, there are two things that I would be remiss to not share with you:
First, the need is greater than ever. Between July and October, our case managers received triple the number of requests that they see in an average year.
Second, the age of those who need our help has become much younger. Many families are coming to us with small children. An alarming number are infants.
Last month, I met a mother with twin infants who came to our Client Service Center seeking help. She needed a safe place where she could care for her babies that night. She was pushing a double stroller up our ramp with some difficulty, so we helped her to our front door bringing her a snack and some water. Both twins were asleep. She asked us if there was room at the inn.
I am not talking in metaphors when I share this story with you—It’s no clever wordplay to fit in with a holiday message. This new mom, with desperation and exhaustion in her eyes, needed a room in our Emergency Housing program, which we’re providing at three different inns across DuPage County. As you read this letter, 1/3 of those counting on our Emergency Housing program for safety and shelter are children. These children—including the mother and her two infants that I met at the Client Service Center—are staying in rooms tonight that you have helped us to set up and provide during COVID.
This is, in fact, not my first experience with something akin to a Nativity Scene, but it was the first time I’ve ever felt like the Innkeeper as we write our collective story. DuPagePads is the Innkeeper. In fact, tonight YOU are the innkeeper.
This year, during times of COVID and great economic turmoil, the need is most dire. There are mothers, fathers, and children—of ALL ages—who are counting on your support to provide safety and shelter this winter. I ask you to please give what you can to support DuPagePads. Your gift has the power to restore hope in so many lives, and to write the next chapter in our clients’ journey toward stability and a place to call home. Your help today will create more room at the Inn, and bring more families and individuals in from the cold.
Thank you for considering our ask for your kindness and support. From our DuPagePads family to yours, we wish you a warm, safe and happy holiday season.
Yours in service,
April Redzic President & CEO, DuPagePads