Zoning Text Amendment for 702 Clark Ave
On November 26th, the Ames City Council voted in our favor on an ordinance allowing social service providers to seek special use permits to operate out of homes in designated blocks in the Old Town District. This past July, we applied for a zoning text amendment to operate out of our 702 Clark Avenue location–the “Orange House.”
The current location at 709 Clark Avenue doesn’t have the necessary space needed to adequately provide our services, so we needed this zoning amendment to operate out of the much larger Orange House at the corner of 7th and Clark Avenue.
City staff will now draft an ordinance permitting social service providers to apply for special use permits. This has been a tedious process, but the beauty of this result is watching our community come together to attend council and open forum meetings, conduct a letter writing campaign to council members, and support our application through constant prayer.
The modified zoning in the Old Town District allows us to complete the architectural plans of the Orange House (702 Clark Avenue) and fundraise for the reconstruction with confidence. This is a big step for our organization!
We can’t thank you enough for your support during this process, especially when we had organized opposition against our plans. We could feel the Holy Spirit’s presence at the council meeting when the vote was about to take place. We were the “voice of the voiceless” at this meeting as we stated our comments to council members on behalf of the impoverished population in Ames who rely on us to get through their challenging days.
We are grateful for the countless prayers and civic action from our generous community. Your actions were instrumental in protecting the marginalized population in Ames and allowing ARH to start the build-out of our much larger home.
Live-in Retreat
We are blessed to have five men who dedicate their lives to Christ by serving the marginalized in Ames. Our Live-in staff work countless hours serving meals, supervising hospitality, keeping our homes organized, and working with our guests to help them transform to a better way of life. Dwayne, Liam, Gabriel, Taylor, and Isaac make the Romero House what it is today. It’s hard work both mentally and physically, so a weekend retreat was definitely in order. David also joined the group for a spiritual weekend to reflect on serving our Lord.
We left on Friday, November 22nd and headed to the New Melleray Abbey in Peosta, Iowa. We made it just in time to observe Liturgy of the Hours in the beautiful secluded church just southwest of Dubuque. There’s also a downstairs stone chapel where we prayed to our Lord for all of the good he has provided ARH.
After our visit to the Abbey, we headed north on Highway 52 to visit the quaint and picturesque towns of Luxemburg, New Vienna, and Guttenberg. We stopped at St. Mary’s Church in Guttenberg. This German gothic-style church was built by German immigrants in the late 1800s and contains beautiful stained glass windows throughout. Dwayne’s ancestors donated one of the windows, so it was great to see his family name on the windows and hear about his family’s history of settling in Iowa.
Our next stop was Harpers Ferry, a small town on the banks of the Mississippi River. This is the hometown of one of our volunteers, Sarah Grover, who also allowed us to spend the night in her farmhouse. The home is situated on rolling farmland (with plenty of cows) just at the edge of Effigy Mounds National Park. That evening, we drove to Lansing for dinner at a restaurant located on the banks of the Mississippi River and then walked the historic downtown despite the night's cold and bluster.
On Saturday morning, we again drove to Lansing to meet with Father Joseph Sevcik at Holy Family of The Bluffs. He was gracious enough to allow us to share Morning Prayer with him at his rectory. Following Morning Prayer, we headed to his beautiful church for confession and meditation. Father Joseph graduated from ISU, so it was nice to see Cyclone signage in the rectory while in the heart of Hawkeye Country. The final stop on the way back to Ames was at the stunning Basilica of St. Francis Xavier in Dyersville where we met up with Matt Mitchell.
Our Live-ins are the backbone of our organization. They love Christ and are willing to live in solidarity and poverty with the underserved community in Ames. This weekend retreat was needed to recalibrate the “crew” as we head into Advent season. Special thanks to Sarah Grover for allowing us to stay at her family farmhouse and enjoy the curving roads, majestic bluffs, dense forests, rolling farmland–and numerous deer!
Our Community
Volunteer Spotlight
Scott Sitzman
Providing nutritious and hearty meals to our guests is one of our most important services we have to offer. Providing a meal and inviting our guests to the dinner table for fellowship and conversation helps our guests reintegrate into a functional society. Our meal preparation wouldn’t be possible without Scott Sitzman. Scott, a licensed pharmacist and longtime supporter of ARH, has been a dedicated volunteer assisting us not only with food preparation, but also with medication questions and requests from our guests. He trains our volunteer staff on how to administer basic medicine and how to notice medical warning signs that need immediate attention.
Scott will pick up food supplies from our pantry on a weekly basis and take them home to prepare several meals for the upcoming hospitality week. It’s not uncommon for Scott to deliver several meals that we can freeze for the upcoming hospitality meal schedule. Without this food reserve, we would be constantly scrambling for meals to serve the 30-50 guests we see on a daily basis.
All of our staff members appreciate Scott’s relentless energy and passion to deliver quality meals and basic medical care for our brothers and sisters. Thank you Scott for everything you do to feed our guests. Your commitment to ARH provides optimism and hope to our guests, allowing them to transition away from their daily challenges.
Friendsgiving Celebration
We shared a hearty meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin bars, and other delicious items with our guests and friends the day before Thanksgiving. The cool fall day was the perfect backdrop for this celebration, and the event was well attended by our community. With Food at First serving their big meal on Thanksgiving day, we felt our Friendsgiving was the best way to provide our fellow citizens the love and comfort they deserve, so they could enjoy two large meals on consecutive days!
In addition to the great meal, we opened the Orange House and had donated winter clothing available to our guests. Special thanks to the Anchor ministry group from St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Cecilia, Christ Community Church, and United Christian Church for their warm clothing donations. Bringing our community together and serving as Jesus commands is what Thanksgiving is all about.
Story County Homeless Prevention and Shelter Collaboration Meeting
Meeting and collaborating with like organizations is an important goal of ARH. In mid-November we attended the Story County Homeless Prevention and Shelter Collaboration Meeting at the Department of Health and Human Services in Ames. This group meets once a quarter to compares notes on poverty and how we can collectively provide essential services to the unsheltered population.
While ARH has a mission to provide comfort to the afflicted in our community, we are always open to finding new solutions and opportunities in our agency ecosystem.
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