MOVE steps up to support transitional-housing kids at hotel

The Days Inn front desk where Rachel Daby works and had a good idea. (photo and large image above courtesy of hotel website)

A Saint Michael’s College student who works the front desk at Days Inn across Route 15 from the Colchester campus saw a need for more positive supervised activities among the children of families housed there through a state transitional housing program.

She decided to do something about it.

Rachel Daby ’24, a junior history major from Essex Junction, said Days Inn has a contract with the state to shelter the homeless population and eventually get them into stable housing through Vermont’s Emergency Housing and Transitional Housing program within the state’s Economic Services Division.

Rachel Daby ’24

“We have many families and children that stay at the hotel and there is not much room or ability for them to play and hang out,” she said. “Staff members try their best to be lenient and understanding, but as a business it can be difficult and stressful for us to have the children running around, yelling and playing unsupervised in a way that could cause injury. We needed to find an outlet for that energy.”

She said that after talking it over with a Days Inn manager, “it dawned on me that the Saint Mike’s Community might be a really great way to go about this” – so in August, shortly before the fall semester, she emailed Lara Scott, director of MOVE, which is the community service arm of Edmundite Campus Ministry at the College.

Lara Scott

Scott in turn brainstormed about how best to possibly help with MOVE staff colleague Ryan Hay ’19 (who already oversees similar community outreach program in MOVE) along with a group of active student volunteers. For rough models, they settled on something resembling a longstanding MOVE partnership with Burlington’s Committee on Temporary Shelter (COTS) or Little Brother/Little Sister outreaches that have been popular and successful with kids from the surrounding community going back decades.

Emily DuFour-Woznicki ’25

Emily Dufour-Woznicki ’25, a criminology major from Plattsburgh, NY, stepped forward as a key organizer of the subsequent Days Inn initiative, and soon got others together to launch this temporary program. Along with Dufour-Woznicki, the regulars include Felicia Fil ’24, Olivia Francisco ’25, Nicole Quispe ’23 and some occasional others. They utilize the front lawn area of the Inn and sometimes the pool or breakfast room on rainy days.

“They’ve gone every week for the last few months, including when it was so freezing, and they and the children seem to love it,” said the MOVE Director Scott.

Daby explained the main reason why this program is temporary: “Last year the state let us know that the program was running out of money and would end as of March 31, 2023, after less than half of the originally promised time. Right now the state is scrambling to move households into more permanent housing but no one really has answers for what is going to happen to the households that cannot find housing by March 31.”

Whatever that eventual outcome for those families, at least for now to the delight of their mentees and those kids’ families, an enthusiastic group of MOVE volunteers has since late September been crossing the street to spend time with the Days Inn youth for a few hours each Friday.

Daby said the Days Inn temporary-resident youth with whom the St. Mike’s students connect include a wide range of ages, from toddlers all the way up to young teenagers.

“The games and activities that the volunteers lead bring a lot of joy and happiness to children who are otherwise in a very stressful situation, and that in itself has been so wonderful to see,” Daby said.

For her, starting and organizing this program “has been so rewarding, and it makes me so happy to see the kids smiling and having fun, because they honestly deserve it more than anything else in the world.”

“These children are resilient, brave and doing the best they can in situations that would make even the strongest adults shudder and break down,” Daby said. “I am very grateful for all the help I received from MOVE, particularly the student leader Emily who has helped keep the program on the rails.”