They sacrificed and unselfishly gave freely of their time when those less fortunate in their community needed them most.

This time around, the script has been flipped for a group of warmhearted volunteers from the Lehighton Cold Weather Station.

An end-of-season celebration for its volunteers and supporters will be held from 5:30-8:30 p.m. April 12 at the Lehighton Cold Weather Station at Ebenezer Church, 119 S. Third St., Lehighton.

Grace Clayton, a volunteer, explained the intent of the celebration and said it is being held for the supporters and volunteers.

“It’s a time to give the volunteers an opportunity to talk about their experiences, some of the good things that happened, talk a little about the vision of what we’re thinking going forward,” Clayton said. “It’s to acknowledge the volunteers who stuck with us through the winter.”

Clayton estimated there were somewhere between 60 to 80 people who contributed “and the community responded with incredible generosity in terms of giving supplies and food, a much broader response to things like that.”

She said the most difficult shift to fill was from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m., and noted that one volunteer who is working two jobs somehow managed to fulfill at least 60% of those shifts.

“I don’t know how many shifts he did; he just stepped up and did it,” Clayton said. “So we want to honor people like that who made a lot of personal sacrifice.”

All told, Clayton said that from the time the Lehighton Cold Weather Station opened Dec. 1 until it closed the evening of March 26, volunteers did about 73 nights, and the shelter was also open between around 10 daytimes in that span.

“We counted over 40 individuals that we served, some of them for one night, some for multiple weeks, some of them started on the first night and were still with us at the end,” she said. “We saw some people go into housing, we saw a bunch of people go through detox, some people through rehab, we had various people get jobs, most of them short-term jobs but making connections and helping people move toward a more manageable situation.”

As a volunteer who had a firsthand look, Clayton described what the experience has meant to her.

“What for me has been the biggest learning is just how complicated these problems are and that there’s no simple solution,” she said. “The success in that the community came together, people had a place to stay.

“But the truth is these people are out on the street again, they don’t have any place to go to, so now what do we want to do. The community does not want them to be living in tents and in the woods, it is a problem for tourism.”

Clayton noted that the Lehighton Cold Weather Station won’t be open again until the end of this year, and added from this point it becomes a situation of “how do we integrate them into our community.”

“Every time they disperse Tent City, it will re-form somewhere else because there’s nowhere for these people to go,” she said. “I really believe that we need to come together as a community.

“These are our neighbors, many with us grew up here, went to school here, it’s not like they’re people from out of town; they’re people who went to grade school here, went to high school here, they’ve fallen on hard times.

“Some made bad decisions, but they’re still part of our community; you don’t just write someone off for bad decisions. I want to be part of a community that cares and gives second chances, third chances, probably fourth and fifth and sixth chances.”

Clayton then quoted author Margaret Mead, who said: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

“How do we go from where we are?” Clayton asked. “It was a successful winter. We built relationships, we cared for people. What do we do next?”

Clayton said she believes the next step in the process is to “continue the conversation with the community and see if we can figure out a way to work together on this.”

“We’re so overwhelmed by the compassion the people have shown,” she said. “Let’s try to figure out a way to help.”

The Lehighton Cold Weather Station is a coalition of churches under the support of St. Vincent de Paul Society of SS. Peter & Paul.

The basement of Ebenezer United Methodist Church is open when the temperatures are 25 degrees or lower at night. It’s open at 6 p.m. for registration and dinner to the homeless when it’s 25 degrees or lower.

The Lehighton Cold Weather Station opened its doors on Dec. 1 in the basement of the Ebenezer United Methodist Church at the corner of Third and South streets across from the Lehighton Police Station and Lehighton Fire Department.

Nancy Berchtold, officer of St. Vincent de Paul Society of SS. Peter & Paul in Lehighton, said they provide food, mostly from volunteers and folks donating food items, but that they would love to have donations of nighttime meals.

Berchtold said they are seeking more volunteers and donations to offset costs for heating, and are grateful for any assistance.

The Lehighton Cold Weather Station is always accepting hand warmers, hats and gloves, and chaperone hours. They are located in the corner of Third and South streets in town by the park.

Those interested in volunteering may sign up to provide meals or chaperone at lehightoncoldweatherstation.org. For more information, call 570-657-6738.