MEETING GROUND ORGANIZES WALK AND RALLY 12/21/07 from 10:30 a.m. to noon ON MAIN STREET IN ELKTON, MD

Walk Aimed at Opening New Center to Help Homeless Before Winter Conditions Impact Lives.

Appealing to Town Officials Yielded No Response so far

Walk will be held in conjunction with National Homeless Persons' Memorial Day

Write to the Town of Elkton in Support of Opening the Mary Randall Center this winter!

(Elkton Maryland - December 14, 2007) Meeting Ground, Incorporated, today announced the organization of a walk in Elkton Maryland to raise public awareness of the Town of Elkton's refusal to allow a Day Shelter and Empowerment Center to open as Winter hits homeless hardest.

The walk will take place on Friday, December 21, 2007 from 10:30 a.m. to noon, starting and concluding at the Elkton Presbyterian Church, located at 209 E. Main Street, Elkton, Maryland, 21921. The walk will cover Main Street to North Street, to Railroad Avenue, to Bow Street, back to Main Street and returning to Elkton Presbyterian Church, the site of the Community Kitchen, a program feeding homeless and working poor people every Friday at noon.

Concerned citizens throughout Cecil County, along with their churches, have joined with Meeting Ground to establish a place of daytime refuge and empowerment: the Mary Randall Center at 401 North Street in Elkton. This beautiful house, warm and inviting, is situated in easy walking distance to all social and health services. A formidable partnership has been formed of social agencies, churches, and dedicated volunteers eager to give a helping hand... to provide the tools to end homelessness in our community, one life at a time.

We are asking the town of Elkton to do what is necessary to allow us to help persons in so much need. We applied for an occupancy permit last August, and because of the undo complexity of the process it will be spring before there is any movement. We want so much to open our doors to help right now, and through this cold winter. It's cold outside. Providing shelter for the night is not enough. These same persons must walk the streets during the day, with no place to keep warm or to find the tools and resources necessary to work on getting their lives together. Many are sick or becoming sick from this situation. Those who care must always seriously consider the strong possibility that persons may die this winter from cold or illness due to exposure.

A homeless woman was discharged from Union Hospital last week after suffering a stroke. Her face was swollen and partially paralyzed. On her puffy neck there was a bloody bandage where an incision had been made. She was staying a night in the rotating church shelter, but she had no choice but to walk the cold streets in pain for most of the day, and every day.

A young man, not more than a boy, now ignored by his family after years of neglect, abuse and molestation sought refuge in the rotating church shelter at night. There he finds care, a warm bed, good food, and the promise of a better life. Yet, he too walks the streets during the day when he could be using the time as a young person desires, to build a life for himself. All he asks is a hand up, a gathering of faith and a community of care that will help him redeem his precious life, his gift from God. He yearns for the courage to stand tall with a job, a home, and a future.

The Mary Randall Center is to be a place of spiritual and personal redemption and restoration for persons caught in the spiral of homelessness, as well as others who are living close to the edge of becoming homeless. Activities at this site will be limited to worship services, prayer, basic daytime hospitality, and practical assistance and referral to appropriate social service, health and medical services. Meeting Ground's long experience with helping the homeless of Cecil County cause staff and volunteers to know that this holistic and faith-based approach will be powerfully effective in changing and restoring and lives.