HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — With this being one of the coldest Christmas weekends on record, local cold weather shelters say their needs go beyond just blankets and hot meals - they need volunteers in order to open.

Hyde Park United Methodist partnered with Hillsborough County to offer a cold weather shelter.  They’ll transform their contemporary worship area into a shelter each night it’s open, and in order to do that, they need about 20 volunteers each day.  

“Christmas Eve, after the last service here, we’re going to ask everybody to pick up your chair and scoot it over because we’re going to make way for guests to come and spend the night,” said Vicki Walker, the Minister of Missions and Outreach.

Vicky says in all her years of ministry, this is the first time she’s ever had to put her church members to work on Christmas Eve, but come Saturday, she’ll need all the help she can get to set up the cold weather shelter.

Volunteers will be needed to put out all of the mats and blankets. They have room to take in 80 people each night.  They’ll also need a couple of volunteers to stay overnight, and some to help with breakfast and cleanup. Normally, Vicki says it’s not a problem, but this year is different.

“It’s Christmas Eve, it’s Christmas Day, many of our regular volunteers are traveling for the holidays or hosting family in their own home and I don’t know who can come and spend a few hours with us, but I’m hopeful we’ll have enough volunteers.”

Vicki says she’s not stressing too much though, because she lives her life with faith, and she believes the Christmas spirit will shine through.

“The story is, there was no room in the inn, and we want to make space in this inn for people who need a warm place. It’s the holiday spirit of giving and caring about our fellow human beings.” 

The church plans to open the cold weather shelter Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. For more information, click here.