It took an hour to get the Haven of Rest Ministries dining room ready for the evening meal.
Colorful hand-decorated place mats and individual cards with Bible verses decorated more than 150 settings. At each seat, trays had been carefully set with iced drinks, side dishes, desserts, utensils, butter, sour cream, salt and pepper.
“They’re coming!” someone announced, sending six people in blue aprons behind the buffet line to position their ladles and tongs above silver trays of barbecue chicken legs, green beans and baked potatoes.
This night, as every night, Akron’s homeless will be served by area residents who have been helping to keep this downtown icon operating for 73 years.
Over the next few months, the Akron Beacon Journal is taking the mystery out of what it means to be a volunteer by offering a step-by-step guide on how to get involved with a Summit County institution.
In previous stories, we explained how to get involved at Akron Children’s Hospital, the International Institute of Akron, Junior Achievement, the Akron Zoo and the Akron-Canton Regional Foodbank.
Today: How to volunteer at Haven of Rest.
The privately funded, Christian-based mission depends heavily on volunteers to help feed, clothe, shelter and counsel folks who are down on their luck.
Last year alone, some 7,000 unpaid helpers supplemented the paid staff of 54. Together, they served 311,000 meals and maintained a three-building campus that hosted 68,000 overnight stays.
Signing up
I started my experience by visiting their website at https://havenofrest.org. The link “Get Involved” led me to an online form that asked for contact information and whether I would be volunteering as an individual or with a group.
Volunteer coordinator Jan Pluck said they don’t ask much more until an in-person interview because there are so many roles to choose from, the staff prefers to explore all the possibilities in person and after a tour.
“Then we can place you where you have a desire to serve and where there is a need,” she said.
No experience or education is needed, and background checks are only done if you opt to work with children, such as leading activities in the playroom.
Volunteers can be as young as 15 as long as parents are present for the initial interview and give their blessing. They can be even younger if they volunteer alongside their parents, Pluck said, noting a family with three preteens who had just been in for a shift making beds.
Some roles — like serving dinner or lunch — are generally scheduled by groups (churches, schools, organizations) which can also use it to build camaraderie among their memberships.
More pairs of hands are used to sort through 45,000 pounds of donations every month and stock a “store” where some 1,400 people a month are invited to select clothing and other personal items.
The mailroom is another destination, where volunteers send off newsletters and calendars, make inspirational dinner cards, or create decorative holders filled with candy for holidays. When a company recently donated some card stock, mailroom groups stamped and colored the white surfaces to create cheery place mats.
In the learning center, tutors help clients working toward their high school equivalency diplomas or assist job seekers by doing mock interviews.
During a tour of Haven of Rest, I saw a spotless campus, where dorm rooms smelled of bleach, activity rooms were well-organized, and a craft room where clients learn how to sew had every spool and thimble in its place. That’s also the work of volunteers, who clean, vacuum, even do windows, Pluck told me.
Outside, volunteers take care of the landscaping and wash the mission’s vehicles.
They also help staff special events, from picnics and basketball camps to running a special women’s shop that opens once a month to the public to raise funds through the sale of homemade and high-end donated items.
There were several areas where I would have enjoyed putting in a shift, but I settled on the activity that most people probably associate with Haven of Rest: Feeding the homeless.
Pluck scheduled me to join a group from The Chapel, which sends a dozen congregants on the first Wednesday evening of every month for the 2½-hour dinner shift.
Showing up
I was told to show up at 6 p.m. to help prepare the dining hall for the 7 p.m. service. I failed to ask what entrance to use and when I showed up at 5:45 p.m., the front door was locked.
A few dozen clients were already lining up at a pair of side doors, and when no one seemed to know how volunteers got in the building, they assured me the doors would open at 6 and I should just wait with them.
Over the next 15 minutes, I came to realize that dinner here served a social purpose for Akron’s homeless. Many of those in line knew each other, embracing new arrivals or shouting greetings to old friends. Some men exchanged thoughts on a recent football game, some women chatted about how they had spent their day.
When the doors opened at 6 p.m., I filed in with them, found a staffer to guide me to the kitchen, then learned that volunteers could enter through a back door.
Pluck was there to show me the ropes. She handed me an apron, waited for me to scrunch my locks into a hairnet, then took me to a sink to wash and sanitize my hands.
She introduced me to members of The Chapel who had already begun the process of setting the tables, and Brian Chima cheerfully took me under his wing. The 28-year-old has been volunteering here with his parents, Lance and MaryLou, since he was a teenager.
As Chima placed the trays before each seat, I followed behind, laying out place mats and the inspirational cards. Other church members buzzed between the rows placing side dishes and desserts on each tray. Because the food is donated in varying amounts, some trays got macaroni salad, some got coleslaw. Some got pie, some got cake.
All the while, diners upstairs were being signed in and directed to the chapel, where they could relax a bit before sitting through a required 15-minute devotional led by other volunteers. In another room, children of volunteers were decorating inspirational cards for a future dinner.
After a final count, the receptionist called to the kitchen to let us know to expect 128 men, 27 women and three families. The dining room is divided to separate men from women, with a special area for families who wanted to eat together. We counted our settings and added a couple more to match the final number.
A 7 p.m. phone call asked if we were ready for our guests, and the word went out to send the diners down.
I took my place behind the buffet, flanked by Brian and Mary Lou Chima, Shelly Winkler, Janis Taylor and Kim Moser.
We worked quickly to fill each plate with hot food and place them on a steel counter, exchanging brief pleasantries with the diners as they filed past, snagging the plates. Nearly everyone offered thanks or a “God Bless” as they walked away.
There was a brief break while the diners ate, so I chatted with the volunteers about what motivated them.
“Just sharing the message of how much the Lord loves everyone,” said Lori Colantone. “There’s hope.”
When the diners were done, we cleaned, mopping the floor, even washing every chair and lining them up in perfect precision using a floor tile for guidance.
That attention to detail and the respect it shows for those who receive help here is one of the reasons Brian Chima keeps coming back.
“To truly appreciate the Haven of Rest and serving, you really have to tour the whole facility,” Chima said. “If you’re from Akron, you wonder, ‘Where do all these homeless people go, these people I see out during the day?’ ”
“Then you come here, and you see all the beds lined up and you see the fresh sheets and you see the clean rooms. You see the clothes in the ‘shopping’ room they have,” he said. “When you see what they do here, and how well they do it, you just want to be a part of it.”
Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/paulaschleis.