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Egan Warming Center Sites Prepare To Open

Karen Richards

With Sunday temperatures forecast to be below 30 degrees, Eugene and Springfield’s Egan Warming Center sites are set to open on Sunday night. Because of changes in locations this season, organizers expect to need more volunteers.

 

For fire safety reasons, First Christian Church in Eugene and Ebbert United Methodist Church in Springfield closed their basements for sleeping. Springfield Schools offered its empty administration building and Egan Director Shelley Corteville happily accepted. She says the changes do pose challenges:

Credit Karen Richards
Shelley Corteville stands with Site Manager Erik Lovendahl inside the new Springfield warming center.

“This season it’s going to be really different because First Christian is fixing the dinner, then guests will go over to St. Mary’s to sleep. And it’s going to be different in Springfield because we’re going to be delivering the food.”

Corteville says they’ll need additional volunteers to prepare meals off-site. She says they’re down 30 to 40 beds in Eugene, but she hopes the Lane Events Center’s Wheeler Pavilion can help, especially because some churches can’t open every night. Sunday may be the first of a string of nights with lows in the 20’s.

More information and details about how to volunteer are at the Egan Center's website. There are trainings December 1st at the old Springfield School District building as well as at St. Mary's Episcopal Church on 13th and Pearl in Eugene. Additional trainings are listed on the website. 

 

Credit Karen Richards
Volunteers have unpacked sleeping pads and pet carriers into this room at the old Springfield School District building. Food will be served on the tables in the foreground.

Karen Richards joined KLCC as a volunteer reporter in 2012, and became a freelance reporter at the station in 2015. In addition to news reporting, she’s contributed to several feature series for the station, earning multiple awards for her reporting.
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