While Sequim enters its warmest part of the year, advocates for the Sequim Community Warming Center are gearing up to help residents make it through the next cold spell.

The two-year-old warming center provides a secure, indoor environment on the coldest nights from October through March to homeless individuals and others. It also provides meals and snacks on site and take-away items, including blankets, warm clothing, sleeping bags, raincoats, personal hygiene items and water bottles.

The warming center is staffed in two shifts, each with a paid supervisor and several volunteers. Center director Jean Pratschner is recruiting new volunteers now because fundraising for next winter’s operations kicks off soon and she hopes to show prospective donors that the center is prepared to meet its new goals, center advocates noted in a press release last week.

Pratschner said she hopes to keep the facility open every night for those five months; at a minimum, she is seeking to open the center any night with a predicted temperature of 40 degrees or less. The center’s budget has restricted the operations to nights when the expected low temperature is 36 degrees or lower.

She noted that even with a largely volunteer staff the center’s proposed additional nights of operation will substantially increase expenses.

In the 2018-2019 fall/winter season, the center was open for 82 nights, and during an extended snowy period in February 2019 it was also open for six days.

To learn more about volunteering at the Sequim Community Warming Center, contact Pratschner at 505-264-0278 or lpratschner@gmail.com.