Special to the Town Crier
CSA program celebrates decade of housing the homeless
"Five or six hundred people have passed through our doors, but the number of lives we've touched is in the thousands," said Tom Pamilla, past Executive Director of Community Services Agency and founder of the Alpha Omega program.
Pamilla was in town to help Alpha Omega staff, volunteers and graduates celebrate its 10th anniversary at a reception on Sunday, Nov. 21, at Los Altos United Methodist Church.
The Alpha Omega program of the Community Services Agency, Mountain View (CSA), serves the homeless with short-term housing and counseling. "Thirteen churches in Los Altos and Mountain View, combined with four churches outside the area, help," Pamilla said. "Each shelters and feeds guests for four weeks each year."
With stringent entrance requirements, Alpha Omega has a phenomenally high success rate of 55 percent of eventual self-sufficiency.
Pamilla said that while the guests undoubtedly benefit very much from Alpha Omega, the volunteers gain just as much or more by giving food, time, money and caring to them.
Pamilla remembered his knees shaking on the day Alpha Omega first opened its doors on Dec. 4, 1989. "Two guests arrived. We had 40 volunteers, three kinds of quiche and a table fit for Louis XIV. It was overwhelming. The miracle was that they came back the next night!"
One of those first two guests, Michael Armijo, was present at the reception. "I was at Alpha Omega for 25 days the first time, but I was still dealing with a dual addiction. I bowed out so I could have a chance to return. Then, a year later, I came back and things clicked. I've been clean and sober ever since. Alpha Omega changed my life," Armijo said.
Reg Pickett of Los Altos, chairman of the Alpha Omega Steering Committee, accepted two citations on behalf of the successful program.
One was from County Supervisor Joe Simitian and the other from CSA.
"They're not mine," Pickett said. "They belong to the whole program. The driving force behind this program is the churches and the volunteers."
Dr. Dick Wheat, on the board of CSA, also thanked other volunteers whose gifts keep the program running. Potters donate bowls for the annual Empty Bowls Soup Supper, restaurants hold the Chefs Who Care dinners and some El Camino Hospital physicians donate their services to the guests.
Jacqueline McFarland, signing in guests at the reception, is a graduate of the program. She lived in the shelter for five months in 1991 and is now completely self-sufficient.
"I'm thankful every day that they were there for me," she said. "I'm still connected to them.
"The nice thing about Alpha Omega is, even if you don't have anything, you can still give something."
For information about volunteering at any of CSA's programs, call 964-4630.