Published: May 30, 2007 11:58 pm            

New playground boosts homeless shelter

By Joel Hall

jhall@news-daily.com



As the paint dried and the cement settled around the new playground set in front of Calvary Refuge Center in Forest Park, the anticipation of going down the brand new slide was almost too much for some of the children to bear.

“They couldn’t wait for us to take the tape off,” said Tawana Tarno, executive director of the homeless center.

The playground, which was installed in mid-April, set off a chain reaction of charitable donations from private individuals and local church groups to help improve the appearance of the building and the grounds.

Volunteers from First Baptist Church of Jonesboro helped improve the drab appearance of the Sunday School Building behind the main dormitories by painting a mural, with a mystical scene of mountains, clouds, and rushing rivers. A private contractor donated his time, and fixed cracks in the sanctuary of the building.

Another contractor helped line the areas surrounding the center with brick-tiled walkways.

Christ’s Church at White Water, in Fayetteville, donated flowers and landscaping, which included various geraniums, as well as hanging ferns, which line the corridors of the long-term stay dormitories for families. The church maintains the landscaping once a month.

“We appreciate what the community does,” said Tarno. “It shows that the community cares. We could never afford these things.”

Calvary Refuge Center runs two separate homeless dormitories with 117 beds in all, one for emergency situations, in which residents can stay for up to 21 consecutive days. The other, provides housing for families in transition for up to 24 months.

Many of the people seeking refuge are women coming from abusive relationships or families caught in the middle of financial turmoil. Transitioning into a shelter is often a scary time for them, Tarno said.

“It’s a very fearful feeling when you enter the building,” she said. “When you tell someone you live in a shelter, the first thing you think of is a dilapidated building.”

She said the donations from the community help keep the shelter from looking sterile and institutionalized.

“To come into a place with all matching bed spreads, shows that someone cares,” she said.

Gordon MacFarlane, a certified builder from Fayetteville who donated the playground set, said that maintaining a sense of normalcy is important for the many children who accompany their parents to the shelter. According to Tarno, there are about 2,800 children in Clayton County Public Schools registered as homeless.

“Kids need to grow up in the best environment they can when they are going through something like that,” MacFarlane said. “If you can make [the center] more like home, that’s great, especially for the kids.”

MacFarlane, a member of First Baptist in Jonesboro, felt that donating the playground set was the right thing to do.

“We believe in what they are doing,” he said. “Being a man of faith, I believe everything I have belongs to the Lord and is supposed to be used for His purposes. This is a good way to do that.”

        

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