‘Gathering Grounds,’ ‘Alice’s Supper Club’ to open Monday

WASILLA — Zachary Simpson, 20, says he’d still be sleeping under a tree if he hadn’t showed up at the Gathering Place three weeks ago.

This handsome, smiling man with a firm handshake is one of more than 70 homeless teens who’ve come through the doors since MY House signed the lease in June — even though the drop-in center at 300 N. Willow St. in Wasilla won’t officially open until Monday afternoon.

A lot has changed for Simpson since he stopped by in need of food and clothing. Through the center, he said he’s connected with resources that have helped him get two jobs, a place to live and he has a plan to earn his high school diploma or GED.

“This whole building has helped me out tremendously,” Simpson said.

One of his new jobs is working for Car Deets Auto Detail, which another Valley teen opened this summer to work in conjunction with the Gathering Place, a drop-in center that connects homeless teens and young adults ages 14 to 24 with employment opportunities through Nine Star, a public health nurse, food and clothing and other services, like showers and washing machines.

While Mat-Su Career and Technical High School graduate Ben Beach is in Florida studying theater at Disney University, the car detailing business he founded this summer is putting homeless Valley teens to work and helping them grow into responsible adults.

Deets opened three weeks ago and employs nine homeless Valley teens part-time. The business also pays rent and donates 5 percent of its profits back to MY House.

MY House board president Michelle Overstreet said a recent change in state law also allows nonprofits to collect rent and use it to offset operating costs.

Blending for-profit and nonprofit businesses as a mechanism to deliver services to at-risk teens is a unique approach, she said. There are only a few similar operations, but all in the Lower 48.

Monday morning, the open sign will light up at the Gathering Grounds Café when it begins serving customers from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., daily. It’s the other part of the business model and also will employ homeless teens.

Here the general public can order coffee and a pastry, or soup, sandwiches or a sack lunch with a side of kindness. Diners support Alice’s Supper Club when they purchase an $8.50 sack lunch — bottle of water, sandwich made on homemade bread, apple, chips and dessert.

“Alice” is culinary-trained chef Alice Renfro, who will serve hot meals to homeless teens at the café from 4 to 7 p.m.

“I think they come in looking for someone to pay attention to them, to work and to be praised for it,” Renfro said of the eager teens who sometimes overwhelm her with offers of help. “They need someone to say ‘good job.’”

MY House board members Michael Carson and Overstreet say it’s been overwhelming to see the generosity of their community.

“It’s been really cool,” Carson said.

Doctors, nurses, dentists, chefs, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, flooring installers, civic, churches and more have all volunteered their expertise to build this new community resource, he said.

“Everything but the kitchen cabinets were donated,” Overstreet said of the labor, furnishings and equipment to open the café. “People are excited about supporting what we are doing.”

During the afternoon, from 3 to 7 p.m., the Gathering Place also will offer life skills and other classes Monday through Friday on topics such as how to open a bank account, what is compounded interest or how to balance a checkbook.

The Mat-Su Borough School District estimates 800 homeless students are enrolled this school year. But Overstreet said that number likely is higher. She said recent rainy weather drew in 24 new homeless teens.

Their faces were new, but their stories were all too familiar, she said. Dad’s out of state and mom’s in jail, mom’s bipolar, parents left the state and left the kids behind, both parents are dead.

Kids end up homeless all sorts of ways. Simpson’s parents aren’t dead or in jail. “I was being a dumb kid instead of out being a man,” he said of how he ended up hungry and sleeping under a tree.

Car Deets Manager Ronnie Chambers said all of the employees there are kids like Simpson, working to move past this chapter in their lives.

“These are real people who’ve been through some real stuff, but they are taking the initiative to move beyond the struggles,” she said.

Charity Lovelace says quitting her job as a high school teacher to volunteer for MY House at the Gathering Place is the best thing she’s ever done.

“And if it doesn’t work, for the love of God, we tried something,” she said.