Dennis Novotny describes his first experience as a volunteer with Elgin Public Action to Deliver Shelter in 1994 as “a wild night.”
Amid the general hubbub of registering homeless men, women and children for a night’s shelter and settling them in, a nurse was administering tuberculosis tests and giving inoculations.
Novotny hadn’t known beforehand what to expect, but he found out later that an evening at PADS is usually not that hectic, he says.
Since that first encounter, his involvement with the seasonal overnight emergency shelter program has grown, and today he sits on the board of Elgin PADS. He is committed to one shift a month, but he served four or five shifts in December and January.
There are three four-hour shifts each night. Novotny takes the first, from 7 to 11 p.m. He’s at the site by 6:30 p.m., helping to set up the registration table, set out the blankets and pillows, and get the refreshments ready.
His wife, Connie Sue Novotny, and his teenage stepson, Matt Rucker, are usually on hand too.
As guests arrive, they must sign in. For anyone coming for the first time, an intake card is filled out, listing the cause of homelessness and the guest’s medical and dietary needs. Then the guest’s picture is taken for the shelter’s files. The guest is given his or her PADS identification card for the year and is offered referrals to social service agencies that can offer assistance with health, employment, substance abuse, financial management and mental illness.
Most of the guests are working, but have minimum-wage or low-wage jobs, Novotny says. Even if they could afford to rent an apartment, they can’t come up with a security deposit. Most don’t stay in the PADS program for long. Of all the people they have sheltered, only about a dozen individuals have come every season.
Once admitted, guests may take a cup of coffee or a glass of fruit-flavored drink. Sometimes sandwiches are available. Most guests spend the time until lights out watching television, but some prefer to play cards or read. When someone wants to talk, Novotny is there to listen.
He is surprised by how ordinary the topics of conversation usually are, he says. Sometimes the guests will talk about politics or jobs, but they don’t discuss the plight of the homeless. Once, though, a PADS guest opened his heart to Novotny. “We shared deeply,” Novotny says. “He missed his children very badly.”
Several times he has prayed with people. “They touch you. A lot of them are in the streets, and you don’t ever find out (what has happened to them). They appear and then they disappear. Some will go together and get an apartment for a while, and then you see them in the streets again. They may show up at PADS.”
“I can’t say enough positive about Dennis,” says Karen Blatt, executive director of Elgin PADS. “He really has taken this with a passion, really cares a great deal, and is always open to trying out new ideas.”
Novotny became active in PADS because of a chance encounter with Blatt’s sister while he was on vacation. The sister works at the visitors center in Fredericksburg, Va. When she saw from a guest register he had signed that he was from Elgin, she asked him if he knew her sister and told him about the PADS program.
Novotny didn’t know Blatt, but the idea of becoming a shelter volunteer took hold. He came home and signed up for the 1994-95 season.
It was Novotny who developed the “passing of the blanket” ceremony, Blatt says.
The ceremony takes place on the first day of each month during the PADS season, when a new church takes over hosting duties. The church that has just hosted the homeless passes on a wool, Army-issue blanket to the new church. Volunteers, staff members and guests may all participate in the ceremony, which consists of prayers and expressions of feelings and expectations.
Elgin PADS began in 1987 with five area churches providing shelter in their basements.
In 1990, PADS leased a 6,000-square-foot space at the Salvation Army facility in Elgin and, in that location, provided shelter for 60 individuals a night until it lost the lease in 1997. Since then, Elgin PADS has gone back to operating at churches.
Each night before guests are allowed to register, they must take a Breathalyzer test. They must register no more than 0.08 percent blood alcohol, the State of Illinois-mandated limit for sobriety, to be admitted to the shelter. The Breathalyzer test is new–and controversial, Novotny says, because it puts a limit on who can stay. “We thought it would be a good way to put some responsibility on the guests,” Novotny says.
Guests don’t mind taking the test, Blatt says. “Our guests are quite responsible people,” she says. “They know it’s a safe, warm shelter and that we’re going to do everything we can to keep it a safe, warm shelter.”
In the morning the guests are offered juice, cold cereal and coffee for breakfast. They must leave by 7 a.m. From Nov. 1, 1997, through April 30, 1998, Elgin PADS provided overnight emergency shelter for 280 guests at six sites: five churches and a senior citizens center. Each site operates for one month and can hold 20 guests. Because its policy is first-come, first-served, PADS turns away about three to five people a night, and some nights as many as 12 to 15. Last year, 540 people served as volunteers, some of whom were formerly among the homeless.
Novotny, 56, was born in Oak Park and grew up in Berwyn, Maywood and the South Side of Chicago. He graduated from Kelly High School in Chicago in 1959 and went to work for Western Electric Co. in Chicago as a draftsman, which has been his occupation ever since.
Four years later, he entered the Naval Reserve and spent two years on active duty. Upon his return to civilian life, he went to work for Motorola Inc. in Chicago and later Schaumburg.
Several years later, he enrolled in Elgin Community College. He received an associate’s degree in math and science in 1972 and worked for various companies since then. Since 1992, he has worked at Sverdrup Facilities Inc., a Chicago engineering construction company that designed the heating and cooling system for the new McCormick Place addition.
In April 1991, while living and working in Louisville, Ky., he met Connie Sue at a concert by Peter Schickele, a musician-comedian. The two were married that August and shortly after that moved to Elgin. Novotny has another stepson, John Rucker, and three daughters–Jacqueline, Cindy and Debra–from a previous marriage.
The family is involved in other volunteer activities, as well. On Saturdays, Novotny, his wife and Matt can be found at Church of the Brethren, 783 W. Highland Ave., Elgin, cooking for the Soup Kettle, an open kitchen that rotates among seven sites and serves 40 to 100 guests. “Connie Sue and I cook and Matt does the dishes,” Novotny says. “You never know how many there will be.”
He and Connie Sue also lead an Alzheimer’s support group in Geneva and co-lead a similar group in Elgin. Novotny’s mother has the disease.
Because he serves on the PADS board, Novotny’s involvement is year-round. He’s in charge of getting the word out about the program and seeking other volunteers.
Last Christmas, a few of the PADS guests participated in the service in the church where they had spent the night. Afterward, Novotny recalls, “they invited us into their `home.’ It was just a nice time. It seems like the less a person has, the more willing he is to share it.”
Novotny says that he and his wife volunteer as a part of their Christian faith and because “we both felt the need to do things. We got tired of talking and studying. That’s why we ended up at Church of the Brethren.
“When I miss a month (at PADS), I’m not comfortable. It’s just something inside of me I have to do.”
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For more information on Elgin PADS, call Karen Blatt at 847-741-0036.
