Group gets new grants to create shelter for homeless students

The High Mountain Youth Project passed some important milestones Tuesday toward its goal of creating a shelter for homeless Ruidoso High School students, and its leaders also received word of an additional $3,500 in new grants to help pay for it all.

Representatives of Altrusa of Ruidoso showed up for the High Mountain annual meeting and surprised the organization’s board and volunteers with a check for $3,000. High Mountain recording secretary the Rev. Laurie Benavides also announced a $500 grant from the Community Foundation of Lincoln County.

High Mountain’s fund balance has now moved into the low five figures, treasurer Leon Kranz reported, but the group’s fund-raising committee still has major work cut out for it.

Benavides said she had drafted a hypothetical annual budget for the organization once it has achieved its goal of establishing a shelter for the dozen RHS students known to be without stable homes and “couch surfing” with friends or relatives, or even sleeping in vehicles.

Capital and operating expenses for the first full year of housing them in secure and supportive surroundings will exceed $200,000, she said.

The organization elected officers for 2016. They are president Kelly Robbins, vice president Rita Combs, Kranz as treasurer, Beth Rabourn as corresponding secretary, and Benavides and Judy Shema as recording secretaries.

Other board members and committee chairs reported that work is going forward on creation of an Internet site, now in the hands of a web designer who has been hired to develop it and then organize the web hosting and templating services that will get it running.

The organization has also retained Steve Duffy, a local specialist in identifying and applying for grants to non-profits, to put his skills to work for High Mountain.

Kranz announced that he had rented a post office box in High Mountain’s name, and the group made plans for establishing a Facebook page to help it spread word of its activities to potential volunteers and donors.

With those nuts and bolts items out of the way, the group heard a report from site committee chair Fernando Guzman on about a half dozen options he’s considering for recommendation to the group as either permanent locations or temporary ones, since High Mountain’s interim goal is to offer students a place to stay after school from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Among the possibilities was the purchase of surplus modular structures from the U.S. Army. Guzman wasn’t able to say what it would cost to move and install the buildings on any given site but said his committee would continue gathering information.

Board member Ted Allen led a brief discussion about the vulnerability of homeless students to abuse and neglect in the temporary or improvised living situations they’ve been forced to adopt as they struggle to complete their educations. He said High Mountain can expect to be dealing with some seriously traumatized young people when it begins taking on clients.