See Beautiful Grant Applicant: Lantern House

The feature below is brought to you by Lantern House, an organization that is in the running to receive a See Beautiful Grant. For more information about all of our giving initiatives, please click here. 

To learn more about Lantern House, please visit their website page: here.

Homeless Court, a Funeral, and Stolen Sausages: My first two weeks at Lantern House

At Lantern House, northern Utah’s largest homeless shelter, there is a large community room which serves many purposes. Last week, I sat in the front row of a courtroom and watched a patient judge, in his formal robe and black Nikes, negotiate community service hours with numerous Lantern House residents. Two clerks took notes, a public attorney counseled clients, and Lantern House case managers took the stand to verify their client’s valiant efforts. 

After an individual had successfully completed their community service obligations, I felt the urge to belt out an excited “whoop whoop” and was beyond happy when the judge asked us to give the individual a round of applause. I could have clapped for hours for the young man, who couldn’t have been more than thirty, as he sauntered out of the makeshift courtroom. The beaming smile on his face made me wonder if he had ever been clapped for in such a way, and I thought about all the cheering and support, literal and otherwise, I’d received in the course of my life, and how unfair the moments in a life can shake out to be in comparison to another.

The week prior I watched an adorable little dog (yes, we take all kinds of animals at our shelter) sleep peacefully on the community room floor, it’s wave-like breath giving life to a somber room as we honored two individuals who had recently passed away. Residents from the shelter filed in quietly, lighting candles and laying flowers on a small memorial table. A pastor shared her thoughts, and although I’ve never been particularly keen on religious ceremony, it felt essential to be there. 

It was a rough initiation to a new job; two people passing away, thankfully peacefully, in my first two weeks at the shelter, but I was grateful for our Executive Director who, having many years on me, seemed more acquainted and skilled in honoring death. It made me proud to know that we were all there, albeit just a few minutes, to recognize their lives in the best way we knew how.

This past Thursday I sat in the community room for our weekly staff meeting; an all hands-on-deck discussion of everything and anything that’s going on at the shelter. Since I’m new, I still feel like I’m a fly on the wall as security, kitchen staff, case managers, medical personnel, and supervisors start hashing out protocols and various responsibilities. I enjoy these meetings because I feel like I’m watching a collective group of people who constantly put the needs of others before themselves. 

Every breath and word they give is in concern for our clients, and I must believe that prior to birth, they were all cut from some insanely altruistic cloth.  I’m crossing my fingers they all wear off on me. Near the end of the meeting, someone from the kitchen brought up a concern with one of the resident volunteers (a client who has been given additional tasks and privileges at the shelter), who happens to be visually impaired, and who happened to be cooking a large amount of sausage that particular morning.

The concern primarily existed around him having enlisted other clients at the shelter to help him cook the sausage, how that number of clients who were “lending a hand” had ballooned to an outrageous figure, and by the end of the sausage frying festivities, the client was left with a small fraction of the sausage he had started with, which we believe he stuffed into a water bottle and stored somewhere. The sausage is just one example, I’ll admit a funny one, of the profound thoughtfulness our staff has for the clients they serve.

Maybe to some it doesn’t seem so beautiful to talk about a misdemeanor community service sentence, a double funeral, or a sausage theft, but I guess I don’t see it that way anymore. I see the beauty in all of it; the tragedy, sorrow, pride, humor, absurdity, grace, and messiness of us all being alive.  I see the beauty in the people who work at Lantern House, who are committed to giving our homeless clients as many chances as they need to get back on their feet. I see the beauty in people who are willing to bring the court system to Lantern House, so clients don’t miss appointments. I see the beauty in the clients that call Lantern House home. 

Most surprisingly, I’ve found that seeing beautiful in others helps me see myself in a softer light, and I think, or at the very least hope, it will allow me to give more beauty, acknowledgment, empathy, and time to those I see so much beauty in.

Written by: Hannah Bowcutt

Development Director, Lantern House