INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) — An Indianapolis agency that helps the city's homeless needs help.
Horizon House is "gratefully overwhelmed" with generosity. It is looking for volunteers to help sort out a mountain of donations.
"This is a great problem for us to have," Horizon House's Director of Development and Communications Marcie Luhigo said.
There are piles and piles of winter coats and gloves and blankets, and anything else people need to stay warm are squeezed into the organization's donation center. It is way more than Horizon House expected when it recently put out a plea for donations.
"We had such an out pouring from the community and support that now our donation center is over flowing." Luhigo said. "We didn't have enough volunteers to sort all through it."
The day we visited, a group of frequent volunteers, young women with down syndrome, were picking their way through the piles of donations.
Riley Forsythe led them through the work and handed out high fives for a job well done. ""We sort socks.. We serve lunch." Forsythe explained. "We sort donations up here and it really empowers them and gives back to the community."
It is a community of homeless people for whom every day is a struggle.
"Many of them are either street sleeping, sleeping in a car or sleeping in a tent." Luhigo said. " And then we have individuals that we placed in in permanent supportive housing but they just don't have all the things they need for the winter."
The immediate need is to get everything sorted out.
Horizon House helps more than 200 homeless people every day. The challenge to keep them warm is so great that the great piles of generosity could be gone in just a few weeks.
People can by donating time as a volunteer or dropping off new or gently used winter clothing. Go to Horizon House and use the "donate" and "volunteer" tabs at the top of the web page.