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Happenings in the Keweenaw Peninsula October 27, 2003 Text © 2003 Off the Beaten Path, Newsletter of the Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Home for Abused Women, Inc. Reprinted with permission.  Photo © 2003 Emily Newhouse.

Gundlach Shelter Home to hold volunteer training Oct. 27, 28

CALUMET --  The Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Home for Abused Women will hold its next training session for volunteers from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 27, and Tuesday, Oct. 28. Volunteers are needed at the Shelter to help women and their children by being empathetic listeners and support persons.

Diana Malnar, right, and her son Luke Malnar carry the Barbara Gundlach Shelter Home banner during the Oct. 13 Vigil and Candlelight Ceremony for survivors of domestic violence held at St. Joseph's Church in Lake Linden. Both women and children at the Shelter are aided by trained volunteers. (Photo © 2003 Emily Newhouse.)

The training is a 16-hour program. The initial five hours are spent with Tammie Dupuis, the Shelter Services Coordinator. This session covers the Dynamics of Domestic Violence, Empathy Training and the policies of the Shelter. Three more hours are spent with the Shelter Services Coordinator to learn forms and paperwork. The remaining eight hours are spent observing other volunteers.

Once the training is completed, volunteers can sign up for shifts that fit their schedule. The schedule is made on a monthly basis with the volunteers selecting the shifts they can work. 

Volunteers are also needed to work with the children for child care during support groups. This is a two-hour commitment for one evening a week. The Shelter is also looking for a volunteer for cleaning house and sorting donations.

The Shelter's present Wish List includes many items that can be donated, including 60-minute phone cards, pots and pans, storage totes (all sizes), large diapers, pull-up diapers, trial-size toothpaste, liquid dishwasher detergent, kitchen towels, dish towels, laundry soap, napkins, three-way lightbulbs and cell phones. The Shelter, a non-profit agency, is also a United Way Member Agency.

For information on volunteering or training sessions call 337-5632. 

To receive the Shelter's newsletter, Off the Beaten Path, write to Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter, P.O. Box 8, Calumet, MI 49913 and ask to be placed on their mailing list. A donation of $5 will help defray printing costs.

Survivor testimony, poetry highlight Candlelight Vigil

During the Shelter's Oct. 13 Vigil and Candlelight Ceremony for survivors of domestic violence held at St. Joseph's Church in Lake Linden, a guest speaker spoke of her own experience as a survivor and attributed her success in starting a new life to volunteers at the Shelter who helped her.

During the ceremony of music (by Finn Street), poetry and speakers, several readers spoke the five voices in "I Am the Woman Who Called," a choreopoem in English and Spanish, written by Maria Limon, Volunteer Coordinator, National Domestic Violence Hotline, with contributions from Hotline advocates, in honor of Volunteer Appreciation Month, April 2003.

Emily Newhouse, executive director of the Shelter, also read the following anonymous poem, re-printed here with permission:

Accepting the Need to Change
(in five short chapters)

Chapter One
o I walk down the street.
o There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
o I fall in.
o I am lost … I am helpless.
o It's not my fault.

Chapter Two
o I walk down the same street.
o There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
o I pretend I don't see it.
o I fall in, again.
o I can't believe I am in the same place.
o But, it's not my fault.
o It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter Three
o I walk down the same street.
o There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
o I see it is there.
o I still fall in … it's a habit … but, my eyes are open.
o I know where I am. 
o It is my fault.
o I get out immediately.

Chapter Four
o I walk down the same street.
o There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
o I walk around it.

Chapter Five
o I walk down a different street.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. For more information visit the Website of the Shelter, a non-profit agency serving Houghton, Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties.

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