Thomas House Shelter, a Garden Grove facility that provides temporary housing to homeless families, opens its doors to everyone this evening to celebrate its next 25 years.
The 25th anniversary “Open House” for the shelter, which boasts a 84 percent success rate at moving its clients from shelters to more permanent housing, is scheduled to run from 5-7 p.m.
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Members of one family that recently “graduated” will speak at the event about having just bought a new home in Garden Grove. Speaking of new homes, shelter officials will reveal the purchase of a new apartment for the program.
Special guest speakers include Garden Grove Mayor Bill Dalton, Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen, U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) and Sister Kathy, who was executive director of Thomas House for 18 of its 25 years.
Founded in 1986, Thomas House has helped more than 1,000 families. It now includes 18 apartments for clients who usually spend six to nine months there before moving on, although some have remained as long as a year.
Besides housing, the program provides food, clothing, family and employment counseling, and parenting, budgeting and nutrition classes. Children can receive homework assistance and create arts and crafts. Off-site childcare services are also available. Currently, the program helps 60 kids.
This evening's event, where food and coffee will be served, is at 12601 Morningside Ave., No. 5, in Garden Grove. Call 714.554.0357, ext.102, or visit www.ThomasHouseShelter.org for more details.
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.