From Bethlehem PA-
Temperatures are starting to climb, most snowbanks have melted away and those of us here in the Northeast are beginning to trade our winter coats for light jackets.
Ah, spring! It's a time when we are no longer forced to cope with crippling snowstorms, ice-covered roads or chapped skin.
And it's also the time when the homeless among us aren't quite as vulnerable as they were during the bone-chilling days and nights of winter.
Recently Express-Times reporter Lynn Olanoff took readers inside a church-based effort in Bethlehem that provides shelter for the homeless from January through March.
The collaborative effort began last year with St. Andrew's Episcopal Church and spread to include seven churches before the winter season was over. This winter, the rotating shelter program grew with Trinity Episcopal organizing the program and 11 other churches serving as temporary shelters.
It's a huge undertaking, requiring a stable of volunteers willing to handle a wide array of duties, including coordinating schedules, sleeping in the temporary shelters overnight, cooking dinners or providing breakfasts.
When major snowstorms struck this winter, some volunteers risked treacherous snow-covered roads to reach the shelter, knowing vulnerable people would be forced to sleep outside in dangerously frigid conditions.
more here-
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/opinion/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1268111140312560.xml&coll=3
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