RYAN HAGEN
News Assistant
Sophomore Clay Gleb was just fulfilling a requirement for his religion class. But one trip to feed the homeless at Midnight Mission as a freshman turned into two, then more, as Gleb joined the growing number of Pepperdine students who say they find enjoyment and value in the program.
Pepperdine students have volunteered at Midnight Mission nearly every Wednesday this year, from 2:15 p.m. to 7 p.m.
That’s twice as often as last year, and Gleb, now the program coordinator, said the number of volunteers has risen to an average of five each week.
On average, one of these is required to go for class, and the others are volunteers.
Gleb took over the program, now in its second year, when its creator graduated in the spring.
“I’d be [volunteering there] anyway,” Gleb said, “but now I get to help advertise and get people to sign up.”
Sophomore JoAnne Baldwin heard his message at Convo and has volunteered almost every Wednesday this semester.
She said the experience opened her eyes to a lifestyle very different from growing up in Idaho.
“A lot of times these people just came up against hardship. Some residents had a college degree and a job, then fell into the trap of drugs or alcohol or both,” Baldwin said.
Midnight Mission’s voluntary drug and alcohol rehabilitation center is one of its main features and boasts one of the highest success rates in the area.
Figures on the number of program entrants to defeat their substance abuse and re-enter the work force range from 12 percent to more than 20 percent, but volunteers and workers agree that it is two to three times as successful as the average social service program in Los Angeles.
Gleb also attributed some of the program’s success to its status as the largest nonreligious provider in the Los Angeles area. The homeless often resist what they see as excessive religious messages, he said.
“I strongly believe in God, but I also believe it’s everyone’s choice [to believe or not],” Gleb said.
There are two main components to the mission. The first, serving three meals a day to anyone who needs it, involves an average of 800 volunteers each month.
Most of these volunteers come in groups, including Pepperdine, Loyola Marymont University, University of Southern California and various L.A. organizations and businesses.
A guide called Pepperdine the most consistent school, Gleb said.
These organizations serve and clean up after a meal prepared by a four-star chef. They serve about 200 people at the beginning of the month, but closer to 900 as the month and welfare checks wane.
Past or present participants in the mission’s other main component, intensive substance abuse rehabilitation, would otherwise do nearly all of the work at the mission.
During the 30-day detoxification period, participants must remain on-site and help with work in dorms or the kitchen. In later stages, they gain amenities like TV and Internet as they learn job skills, then work off-site and rent apartments for $200 per month.
The mission surprises participants by reimbursing this rent when they graduate.
The executive board includes several program graduates, as do the organization’s middle levels.
“I have had a similar past and wanted to give back some of what God has given me,” Public Affairs Officer Shannon Buhrmaster said in an e-mail.
She has worked with Midnight Mission for more than four years and now is in charge of scheduling volunteers.
“We have a family unity that is rare among the non-profit world,” she said, Baldwin agreed that she had come to know many at Midnight Mission, but brushed off any credit for the changes she saw in some of them.
“I don’t know how I’ve contributed, but I try to bring a joyful face and a willing spirit wherever I go, and I hope that helps the people I’m working with,” Buhrmaster said.
“I know I don’t know the half of what they’re going through, but you see a change in their faces and the way they walk in.”
03-01-2007
