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	Joseph Felton eats ice cream July 21 to cool off in the basement of St. John's Church, Wichita. The church provided a heat relief shelter for five days when temperatures soared above 100 degrees. Photo by Travis Heyling, The Wichita Eagle

St. John's, Wichita offers
heat relief

By Melodie Woerman
Editor, The Harvest

St. John's, Wichita, opened its basement during a string of 100-plus degree days in July to provide a place of respite to the homeless, poor and elderly in its downtown neighborhood.

The parish’s heat relief shelter operated during the afternoon hours of July 19-23. It was one of only a handful of such shelters in the city.

The parish’s interim rector, the Rev. Nicolette Papanek, said that when she heard the weather forecast on the 10 p.m. news July 17 she knew the parish needed to respond.

Before she could even formulate a plan, she had a phone call from Kathy McCoy, the parish’s outreach chair and an advocate for the homeless in Wichita.

McCoy suggested opening the basement for those who needed somewhere to go when the temperature hit triple digits but wondered what else they could provide. Papanek said they already had the basics — a cool place and cool water — and would start there.

On Tuesday the two gathered volunteers, assisted by the local Inter-Faith Ministries, to make certain the shelter had at least two, and preferably four, people on hand. They also placed calls to local businesses to solicit food items.

That plea brought in more donations than they could use. Pizzas, ice cream, homemade cookies, bottled water and ice all appeared. St. James’ Episcopal Church brought over extra packaged snacks from its after school program.

Papanek, in her sermon the following Sunday, recounted how one man approached her at the shelter, curious how slice after slice of pizza was being eaten but the boxes never seemed to run out. She replied, “Remember when Jesus took five loaves and two fish and fed 5,000? Well, today it’s pizza.”

McCoy said the shelter averaged about 50 clients on each of the five days it was open.

St. John’s closed its heat shelter once the weather returned to more normal temperatures. When the heat soared again later that week, a shelter was opened at the offices of Inter-Faith Ministries, also downtown. They have continued to operate it as needed.

One heat-related death in Wichita was that of James Geary, a homeless man who died July 20 in Naftzger Park near downtown. Papanek officiated at a memorial service for Geary, an honorably discharged Vietnam veteran.

"James had relatives and friends," she said to the three dozen peopel who gathered for the service. "He had feelings and ideas. What he did not have was a place to live."