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If you are active on Facebook, you probably saw all the posts on the pop-up warming station during the severe cold snap in early January. The group behind the warming station is called “A Winter Less Cold,” which is a collection of volunteers and local organizations including United Way, Survivor’s Resource Network, and GRAND Mental Health. The group has been meeting since October to lay the groundwork to make opening a warming station possible. Still, at their meeting just before the cold snap, they did not have any venues to host a warming station yet (You can read some background on the “A Winter Less Cold” on PCM+ here. The group was at an impasse.
But after the meeting, something incredible started to happen. As the cold descended on our city, a citizen stepped up to offer a space, and then volunteers began to show up with supplies. Then, more volunteers and supplies came, and people all over the community started to communicate and work together to make sure that those who needed a space in the severe cold had a way to get there. The next day, volunteers relocated the warming station somewhere with more space offered up by another citizen. More volunteers and supplies showed up, and the warming station was operating, keeping those in need warm. The warming station moved one more time to a third location with better heat and more space, and again, volunteers from all over came to help move everything, all with one thought in mind - helping those most in need in our community.
And so it was that on a cold winter day in January, a group of Ponca City citizens came together in an hour of need to feed, clothe, and shelter the unhoused in our community. It reminded me of a quote I heard once by Margaret Mead.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
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