Rochester Elks donate $3G to city homeless shelter

From left, Norman Gervais, Rochester Elks Lodge Secretary, PER and ENF Chair. Jenn Pare, HCSC Case Manager / Supervisor and Peter Ducharme, Rochester Elks Exalted Ruler. (Courtesy photo)

ROCHESTER - The Rochester Elks Lodge #1393 on Feb. 23 presented a check for $3,000 dollars to the "Home for Now" (HCSC) homeless shelter located on Washington Street in Rochester.

he donation was made possible by an Elks National Foundation Beacon Grant. Representing the HCSC was Jenn Pare, Case Manager/Supervisor. Presenting the donation was Rochester Elks Exalted Ruler Peter Ducharme and Lodge Secretary, PER and ENF Lodge Chair Norman Gervais.

The Homeless Center for Strafford County has been in existence for over 25 years and is a certified non-profit organization. Residency used to be seasonal in their former location near the Waste Management Facility. That all changed in 2019, when HCSC acquired 17 acres of land on Washington Street, made possible by a generous donation from the Laurion family. A building task force was formed and in November of 2021, the Home for Now Facility opened its doors to residents.

This facility serves single adults, elderly and families. Since October of 2023, they have served 39 families, including 15 children and 4 seniors. They have 10 bedrooms with a total of 32 beds and 1 emergency overnight folding bed.

Each client/family is required to meet with their case manager at least one hour per week. The shelter also has volunteers coming in twice a week to cook dinner for the clients. For more information about the shelter please visit https://hcscnh.org/

The Rochester Elks Lodge #1393 is a certified non-profit organization with over 1,000 members locally and over 800,000 members nationwide. Their programs include community service, scholarships, veterans activities, drug awareness, Americanism and youth activities. For more information about the Elks, please visit www.elks.org