The long freeze has taken a toll on those who offer shelter

BRANDON — Jan. 2 was the first day that Greater Brandon Ecumenical Ministries had operated a cold shelter at the Brandon Community Center. It took in one person.

Monday, it had 34 people seeking refuge.

Ryan Harrington made rounds Monday, sipping out of a tall cup of gas station coffee.

The 28-year-old property manager has worked the overnight shift here four frigid nights in the past week. Monday, he was on the 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. shift.

Early on, volunteers clamored to sign up, but the demand has taken its toll.

They didn't know what to expect when they opened their doors, never thinking they'd still be at it, taking in people and staffing four shifts a night.

"Never in our wildest dreams,'' said 71-year-old volunteer Skip Wilson.

Women and children bed down in the conference room. Men bunk amid pool tables.

The group has drivers who pick up people at soup kitchens and ferry food from Metropolitan Ministries, and volunteers who serve the food, register the people and keep watch on the place through the night.

Harrington said he pulled one double shift until 4 a.m. when there was no one else available. His 10-year-old son wakes him for work at 9 a.m. every morning.

He has spent a lot of those long, late hours talking to people, he said. "It's amazing, some of these stories.''

One young man won't tell other people he's homeless; another wakes up and rides his bike to a job in Wesley Chapel.

"It hurts your heart to know that there are people who live this way,'' Harrington said.

Across the bay, on his 10th night of volunteering at a local Pinellas County soup kitchen, Tim Rudenis started to notice the hands.

Some of the faces before him on Monday night were new, others familiar. But Rudenis noticed the trembling hands. Some of the paper plates they held buckled when he placed a piece of roasted chicken on them. They were that cold.

This is the first time that cold night shelters in Hillsborough and Pinellas counties have opened this many days in a row. The marathon is putting a strain on supplies like food and blankets.

Volunteers like Rudenis, who was paying a babysitter to take care of his daughter because his wife works nights, are wearily keeping up with the pace. Rudenis says it's worth it.

"You start to see what it's like being homeless," said Rudenis, 50, of St. Petersburg, a hairstylist who is volunteering at the Boys & Girls Club of the Suncoast in Pinellas Park. "That makes your efforts worth it."