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By: T. Brent Newman — C.E.O. Grundy County Housing Authority

Every year here in Grundy County, from the months of October to April, seven area churches let people with nowhere else to go sleep in their premises overnight from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m. Most often this is on four-inch foam pad, covered with linen provided by our local hospital. The program is called Public Action to Deliver Sustenance (PADS). It’s completely volunteer and operates with a few donations of food and very little actual cash. It’s one way our community helps to take care of those around us during the brutal winters here in northern Illinois.

I volunteer once a month, taking a shift from 3 a.m. until 7 a.m. I do it because it’s necessary, like dusting, or going to visit my sister-in-law. I distinctly do not do it because it’s a glamorous way to spend my time.

I will admit, though, there is much to envy regarding my volunteer job at PADS. Among the many envy inducing things I get to do:

• Scrubbing the church toilets with bleach, on my hands and knees, at 6:30 a.m.

• Being a complete and utter ill-tempered mess for about a day and a half until I get my sleep schedule back to normal.

• My personal favorite — telling folks at 7 a.m it’s time to go. This is all the more true when I have no idea where they’re going to go and it’s minus 14 buhjillion degrees below zero. Just in case you’re wondering, “buhjillion” is a mathematical term of art defined by my grandmother as “a whole lot more than a passle.”

I work at a public housing authority. I’m supposed to be used to working with poor people, fearless in all regards to their plight. I’m supposed to be a social magician, able with the stroke of my bureaucratic pen to transform the misfortunes of those huddled masses yearning to be housed. But between you and me, I don’t feel very powerful at all when I’m at PADS. In fact, I feel awfully, awfully small. And in a whole lot of ways, petty.

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By Jessica Cohea — This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it