VERSAILLES, Ky. — The heat is on and community centers around Kentucky are helping cool people off.
From now until Aug. 1, doors and coolers will be open at Living Grace Church’s “The Station.” The church is opening the center this summer as a temporary emergency cooling center for people in need in Woodford County.
“Not just for the homeless,” said Jo Lauderdale, who is the pastor of the church located downtown.
She added, “They’re top priority because they don’t have the resources a lot of other people have, but it’s set up for anybody. Maybe your air goes out, maybe you’re a construction worker and you’re exhausted. Whatever, you know, whatever reason you may be hot. “
Each day it’s over 90 degrees outside, the church will offer space, water, food and resources to the community.
“We have our bathroom and they can just chat with each other, not chat with each other. There’s no real strict, hard, and fast rule. They can come and go,” Lauderdale said.
The Station got its name after the church first opened its doors last winter as a warming center. They opened became a center because someone died because of the cold weather.
It’s why the church and other community members came together to meet and discuss the best way to support homeless individuals during critical weather.
Lauderdale said, “Then our judge executive here in Woodford county magistrate, James Kay, reached out because he had heard and been to a meeting or two and he said, ‘Are you serious about providing a place?’ And I was like, absolutely, I’m serious. And so he said that the Woodford fiscal court would partner with us. They would help us because as much as I said, I have it on my watch, he said, it happened on mine.”
Lauderdale started her grassroots faith center inside of her home in 2017 and it has grown over the last several years in partnerships and into the space off Green Street near the town square.
The Station and church are supported by grants, other churches, organizations and local police.
She says at the moment, among other challenges such as funding, they need manpower and volunteers. Currently Lauderdale, her husband, mother, other family members and a few church members are the only volunteers. She says they are grateful to keep people cool.
She said, “I’m fortunate that the people in our congregation are faithful, that we all share the same passion and the same heart. So, I mean, any time there’s a need, we all want to jump in, in whatever way we can, and we just let the good lord handle the rest.”
Lauderdale says they are also open for families with younger children.