Maybe I’m Amazed

What is it with women?

I went to the volunteer training for the Street Angels warming room tonight. Eighteen prospective volunteers attended. Guess how many were women?

Seventeen.

These are the volunteers who are going to greet homeless people, mostly men, at the door of a church, check them in, explain the rules, show them to their tents, and then later, escort them to the bathroom or outside for cigarette breaks, all the while making sure they keep their masks on. They are the same volunteers who may have to tell latecomers that we’re full or intervene in an argument or ask someone to leave. They’ll be doing this wearing masks in the basement of a church where, even though everything possible is being done to mitigate risk, the chance of exposure to COVID will still exist.

The volunteers were told that the most vulnerable folks would be targeted for the warming room. This will mean a high incidence of addiction, physical health problems, and mental illness. Not a single attendee seemed to flinch. Later, they toured the ‘tent room’ where twenty-five tents were set up, each with an inviting quilt and a pillow. They took it all in, this peculiar set-up, this plan fashioned out of CDC guidance, expert advice, and vast quantities of wishes and prayers, and they nodded. Okay, they seemed to say, so this is how it will work. And when the session ended, they lined up at the front table to turn in their signed volunteer forms, a whole long page of legalese, and then asked how to register for volunteer shifts.

What is it with women?

They are just so profoundly badass.