By Mary-Justine Lanyon
Mountain Hands is a youth service group started by James O’Brien, his wife, Keely Hawkes, and their daughter, Cadence. Cadence and the other teens started casting and rehearsing a musical version of Mean Girls last June. Their goal: To raise money to donate to the Mountain Homeless Coalition.
Their production of Mean Girls took place at the Tudor House on Jan. 3 and 4. Mountain Hands invited representatives from the Mountain Homeless Coalition to the Feb. 15 service at the Lake Arrowhead Community Presbyterian Church, which sponsors Mountain Hands, to receive a check.
As Cadence handed the check for $1,008 to Sue Walker, the MHC president, she said the members of Mountain Hands are looking forward to being able to serve again.
Walker – who was accompanied by Susan Buckley, the MHC housing navigator – said the Coalition was started in 2016 by the Presbyterian church and St. Richard’s Episcopal Church.
“When we started,” she said, “people thought there were no homeless on the mountain.” In the first Point-in-Time count, only nine unhoused people were counted. Walker acknowledged that wasn’t many but it did show there are unhoused people here. In the latest count, which took place on Jan. 22, 46 unhoused people – the highest number to date – were counted.
The Mountain Homeless Coalition provides emergency housing, permanent housing and prevents homelessness for those at risk.
As she accepted the check, Walker said, “We really appreciate these young people.”
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