Mapping Georgetown: In Giving, We Receive
By • September 11, 2023 0 1129
“For it is in giving that we receive.”
~ St. Francis of Assisi
We live in such abundance. Can we even imagine how it must feel to be stomach-achingly hungry and not know where to find your next meal, to be sick and have no access to a doctor, to not know where you’ll spend the night as the chill of the evening approaches?
Yet so many in our community are without homes or shelter, but live and struggle among us.
For today’s Mapping Georgetown, we look deeper at how Georgetown’s primary caring and sheltering agency, Georgetown Ministry Center (GMC) at 1041 Wisconsin Ave. NW, serves on the front lines to help our unhoused neighbors and friends. GMC has graciously offered a personal look at the unhoused in our own community. These staff and friends of GMC are the foot soldiers who seek out those without shelter — wherever they might be — and do whatever it takes to help them. No judgment.
Meet Delores Jackson. She is one of Director Kelly Andreae’s right-hand people at GMC. Jackson started with Georgetown Ministry years ago, at the Overnight Shelter, when the program director needed another staffer. Her caring efforts took her to the main office where she’s valued beyond description.
Delores Jackson’s Mapping Georgetown Story
Delores Jackson’s Mapping Georgetown Story. Courtesy Mapping Georgetown.
“When I first started to come to Georgetown, I was coming to shop at the stores that sold jewelry, and I never thought I would spend so much time in Georgetown. I got a job here with Georgetown Ministry Center at their overnight shelter. And, it was very rewarding for me because I got to know, help and care for amazing people, whom some are still a part of my life today. Now I work at our Day Center where our complete staff works diligently to end Homelessness, one person at a time. GMC works hard to get our guests housed, medical and psychiatric help. Help to make them a better person. We help get them their documents so they can receive proper services everywhere. It has been a pleasure being part of Georgetown. “
Thank you, Delores, for your unlimited loving kindness! It is a special gift to warm our hearts with your exemplary caring and humanity for others and our community.
Mark you calendars: Here’s an opportunity to support the unhoused, Delores Jackson, GMC Director Kelly, and other GMC staff and volunteers, at Georgetown Ministry Center on October 4:
In 2020, The Georgetowner ran a story about GMC’s efforts to provide comfort to the unhoused in our community during the pandemic. Director Kelly Andreae’s story for Mapping Georgetown can be viewed here.
Mapping Georgetown stories in The Georgetowner can be viewed in full at https://georgetowner.com/categories/mapping-georgetown/.
We invite you to add your story to our Mapping Georgetown collection. Blank templates can be printed from the home page of www.mappinggeorgetown.com or picked up from The Georgetown Public Library.
To learn more about the Mapping Georgetown project see https://georgetowner.com/articles/2021/07/19/marilyn-butlers-vision-for-mapping-georgetown/. Marilyn Butler can be reached at marilyn.butler@gmail.com.
