During the summer the men’s shelter in the Border City is usually close to capacity.
Executive Director Valerie Lazicki says that the extreme weather conditions in the summer and winter bring in more men looking for supplies.
“We do have sunscreen but also we have our lobby open almost all the time. Although the men cant check in to the shelter, the shelter proper, until five o’clock in the afternoon when we have our lobby open, they will come in just to get out of the heat and get something cold to drink,” Lazicki adds Sunburn and heatstroke are a big worry for the guys in the summer and finding a cool place is very important.
The shelter holds a maximum of 28 people and Lazicki says that one of the challenges is that they’re feeding more.
“People coming through, transients who are travelling across country and that kind of thing, we have families that come in for food that would typically maybe get their support from other places through the school year. During the summer things are a little more difficult.”
The shelter had a new program this year where they asked schools in Lloydminster for any lost and found items that could be used for the men. Lazicki says one of the biggest items they received was reusable water bottles.
” When the guys leave here in the morning all they have is their bag lunch and it has a little juice box but that’s their only fluid, that’s the only liquid. Trying to stay hydrated through the hot summer is a real challenge. The schools were fantastic and they gave us all sorts of stuff.”
The shelter says they get a lot of food donations from local businesses but Monetary donations were down due to the recession and are slowly picking up.