Cherry Street Mission seeks blankets, cash after boiler quits

11/8/2010

Even the most warm-hearted and well-meaning places can end up being cold now and then.

Just ask the Cherry Street Mission Ministries, which has been feeding, clothing, and housing homeless Toledo-area men while spreading the word of God to them since 1947.

Its building on 17th Street near downtown has been without heat since its main boiler broke down Wednesday. The men its serves have been bund ling up in “double and triple blankets,” Dan Rogers, the mission’s president and chief executive officer, said Sunday night.

The facility is in need of blankets and cash. The latter would help pay for the mission's unbudgeted $16,000 bill it's getting to rebuild the main boiler, a job that is scheduled to be done Tuesday. Cherry Street decided to rebuild after learning the cost for a new boiler would be about $28,000, Mr. Rogers said.

“We're still asking the community for help,” he said.

Cherry Street was anticipating a budget shortfall even before the heat went out. Its donations are down at a time in which its need for certain services has gone up, according to a statement issued last week.