“It was evening time and everyone was cleaning up from our shelter dinner. A phone call came in from the Marshall County Sheriff’s office asking us if we had a room for a single mom and her family. We told them yes we did. A few minutes later a deputy brought a very young mother and her two infant/toddler children through our door. We welcomed them all into our shelter as we always do.
Complications with identification, birth certificates, and social security cards were just the beginning to our challenges. The mother was fleeing from an abusive relationship, the children had lice and the mother seemed to have scabies. Where do we begin? We began by feeding the family dinner, they were starving! The next step was to wash all their clothes and have them bathed. We treated the family for lice and the mother was brought to the emergency room for treatment. As far as their identification, it took us weeks to straighten this out because one of the children was born in Italy.
After a couple of months, we finally were able to get housing for this young family. On Christmas Eve 2017 they moved into their new home. When there was nowhere to turn the authorities and this young family found refuge at The Salvation Army. Our slogan is “Doing the Most Good,” and that is what our goal is to do with everyone who seeks our assistance.”
– The Salvation Army of Belmont County