Bethel House celebrates 20 years of helping the homeless
By Tom Ganser
Correspondent
More than 50 people gathered to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of Bethel House in Whitewater last month.
Bethel House operates six private housing units providing interim housing for homeless families with children for up to one year while assisting them with utilizing various social services to transition them back to independent housing.
Three units are on property owned by the First United Methodist Church, the other three by an individual with Bethel House managing and maintaining them.
Bethel House supports the families living in its housing units, as well as many non-housed clients, through vocational, financial, relational, and parent skills counseling and providing legal and health-related services, home furnishings, limited short-term rent, utility assistance and referral to other agencies.
Jim Winship, vice-president of the board of directors for Bethel House, summarized his involvement with Bethel House as “a labor of love and a labor of God.”
Winship began the Oct. 12 event, held at First United Methodist Church, by recalling how the idea for Bethel House emerged from the experience of Ken Kidd, a Whitewater family practice physician who had learned that one of his patients – a single parent with two young children – had spent the winter living in a camper. Although she was employed, she did not have the money for a security deposit and first month’s rent to get an apartment.
After Kidd shared that information with members of the stewardship committee at the Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Whitewater, as well as the report of the principal of Washington Elementary School regarding five homeless children, work began to combat the problem of the homeless in Whitewater.
Winship read a letter Kidd had written that began, “When we first started this project, I talked with several people involved with similar projects, all of whom had already failed to maintain their program or who were struggling. The two recurring themes that I heard were that you must provide more than just a roof and you must have an organization that ensures long term stability.”
“From the start, our plan for longevity centered on being a community-wide, ecumenical project,” Winship said. “How better to ensure stability than to involve multiple organizations (local churches) that share common valued and have a combined history of between 500 and 1,000 years of continuous service?”
The five churches initially involved in creating Bethel House and supporting its operation financially and with volunteers have grown to 10: Community of Christ the Servant, Congregational Church U.C.C., Crosspointe Community Church, First English Lutheran Church, First United Methodist Church, LaGrange United Methodist Church, Living Word Fellowship, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, St. Patrick’s Catholic Church and Richmond United Methodist Church.
Winship attributed the success of Bethel House in part to the stability of board members who served six-year terms.
As founding board members, Carole Scharinger and Don Triebold were able to continue serving as directors throughout the 20-year history of Bethel House. They were recognized at the gathering since they will be retiring from their roles at the end of this year.
“I serve on lots of boards and committees and go to meetings,” Winship stated, “and the Bethel House meeting is the meeting, month in and month out, year in and year out, that I most look forward to. It has been and continues to be a wonderfully active board of really good people.”
Three Bethel House coordinators representing 17 years of the program were present at the celebration including former coordinators Shirley Cutshall and Mindy Triebold, who served two and 12 years respectively, and Kristy Weinberg who is currently in her fifth year as coordinator.
Cutshall, the first coordinator at Bethel House recalled that four children from one of the first families living in a Bethel House unit “were adopted and taken care of and loved, and all are young adults now.”
“I was very pleased and blessed to be part of that for the time I was here,” Cutshall said, “and I still see so many faithful faces.”
Knowing that the community wants to know if Bethel House is making a difference, Mindy Triebold said there are tangible results, including the number of families served and the sources and uses of financial resources.
She also used the example of George Bailey’s opportunity in “It’s a Wonderful Life” – to see all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community would be had he never been born.
“I think as we celebrate 20 years and going forward, that we really think about what our world, what our community would look like if Bethel House had never been born,” Mindy Triebold said. “That part is not measureable, is not tangible, but we’ll never know what would have happened to the families had we not been there to be their safety net and what their lives would look like now had we not been involved.”
Weinberg said she is thankful for the support and encouragement she has received the past five years.
“I’m so grateful for the role that Bethel House has in my life,” Weinberg said.
Bev Bonge-Ganser, president of the board of directors, said she has seen firsthand the positive effects of “safe and secure housing and supportive people” on the lives of families helped out by Bethel House.
Noting that “hitting the 20-year milestone for as a non-profit is amazing,” Bonge-Ganser said. “We have been blessed with the support of many individuals and businesses in our community.”
Bonge-Ganser said she has also seen the growth and expansion of that support over the past several years, including the involvement of several UWW student organizations that have annual fundraisers or supply drives for Bethel House; local individuals and businesses that make financial contributions, often wishing to remain anonymous; and financial support received in 2013 and again this year as a Charity Partner for the Discover Whitewater Series.
Bethel House is also the recipient of support from the United Way.
“Coordinator Kristy [Weinberg] receives several calls and emails daily from folks, many of whom are single mothers with children who are seeing assistance. She assesses their situation and makes referrals for services, provides financial assistance for bills, or tries to help them find furniture, transportation or to meet other needs,” Bonge-Ganser said. “These non-housed clients are the outreach segment of the Bethel House Program.”
When meeting with families for whom housing is provided, Bonge-Ganser explained that Weinberg “helps them untangle their financial and frequently emotional mess, set goals and provides ongoing support and encouragement.”
“Even with our financial stability, our known presence in the community and our current housing availability, we are mindful that these circumstances could change suddenly and we on the board find ourselves asking some pretty complicated ‘What if?’ questions,” Bonge-Ganser said.
Accordingly, she said, the board will be establishing a strategic plan to guide future decisions and planning a capital campaign “to help secure and stabilize our housing needs.”
Winship said what the future holds is unknown. “But [with] the energy and the wisdom and the perseverance of people here, the odds are pretty good that we’ll be able to do good things.”
The Reverend Susan Bresser, pastor of First United Methodist Church, said she and the ministers of the other churches supporting Bethel House frequently receive inquiries about the program.
“What an awesome ministry. What an awesome community foundation that you have all provided and worked hard for,” Bresser said.
Jim Caldwell, longtime Whitewater resident and businessman, was one of many local residents who attended the anniversary celebration.
“The 20 year historical reflection on the existence of Bethel House was indeed impressive. The wonderful humanitarian services and shelter provided by this organization are truly impressive. It is operated by very capable and caring staff as well as supported by so many dedicated volunteers and generous sponsors,” Caldwell said. “We are truly fortunate and can be proud to have created and sustained such an organization in our community.”
For more information visit www.bethelhouseinc.org.
