As colder air moves into Southwest Florida next week, one North Fort Myers church is making sure no one faces it alone.<\/p>\n
Inside North Shore Alliance Church, a small group of volunteers runs Blessings Closet \u2014 a community outreach that provides free clothing and food to anyone in need.<\/p>\n
They open their doors twice a week \u2014 Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon, and Tuesdays from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. \u2014 welcoming anyone who could use a warm coat, food for their plate, or a kind word.<\/p>\n
June Holladay leads the effort and says it all comes down to faith and compassion.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou walk in here and you think, \u2018oh, homeless people,\u2019\u201d Holladay said. \u201cBut God showed me \u2014 that could be you, that could be your child, your mother, your father.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the volunteers have personal connections to the Closet. One woman who once relied on the program now helps sort donations each week, calling it one of the best things she\u2019s ever done for herself.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the cold snap, Blessings Closet is making sure warm clothes are ready to go. Volunteers spent the week pulling out jackets, sweatshirts, and coats, anything that might help people stay warm through the chilly nights.<\/p>\n
But they\u2019re still in need of a few specific items. The church is asking for donations of men\u2019s small and medium shorts, which are currently in short supply.<\/p>\n
Anyone who wants to help can drop off clothing or food donations directly at North Shore Alliance Church, located in North Fort Myers.<\/p>\n
Holladay says for her and the volunteers, it\u2019s more than a mission, it\u2019s a calling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re God\u2019s servants,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they are His guests.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As colder air moves into Southwest Florida next week, one North Fort Myers church is making sure no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,325],"class_list":["post-39301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-lee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}