Q&A: Lighthouse Mission director talks aid, program

Editor's note: This is one in a continuing series of interviews with local officials. Richard Gomez is the executive director for the Lighthouse Mission in Clovis.

Q: Can you explain first what all the Lighthouse Mission does?

A: We are a soup kitchen, we are a clothing bank, and a furniture bank. We're a homeless shelter for men, women and families. We have a program for men and women for drug and alcohol recovery and that's a six-month program.

Q: Is it possible for you to put a number to the amount of people you help?

A: It's different in every program that we have.

The kitchen, you know, is open five days a week. So, we serve hundreds of people there.

Our program for men and women, it's different there too because they stay with us for six months.

We have people coming for clothing every day and people coming for meals every day.

We have people, men and women, in our drug and alcohol recovery program every day.

We have homeless people coming every day. So, we're busy in all areas.

Q: Does this time of year get busier for you?

A: Yes, it sure does. We will be serving Thanksgiving meals to the community on Thanksgiving Day. We also deliver shut-ins during Thanksgiving Day as well. So, we'll be delivering and feeding there on site.

Then, on Dec. 16, we'll be having our annual children's Christmas celebration.

And then on Christmas Day we'll be serving a Christmas meal to anybody that comes in as well as making some more deliveries.

Q: What else are you all working on to make the holidays better for the less fortunate?

A: With the meals, of course, and then with the Christmas celebration, you know, we invite all the area children to come, and we give away hundreds of toys to the kids and candies and everything.

Of course, we're always giving away clothing in the wintertime; winter blankets and coats that we give away to the families for the winter.

Q: Is there anything specific the Lighthouse Mission could use more of?

A: For sure. For our Christmas celebration, we do toy drives where we ask people to buy toys for the celebration.

We could always use Thanksgiving foods like cranberries and stuffing. We actually have plenty of turkeys this year. We've already cooked like 28 of them. We cook them and bone them and then put them in pans and refreeze them. The night before Thanksgiving we pull them out into our refrigerators and then heat them up for Thanksgiving Day.

So, it's really just the trimmings that we need, I guess you would say.

Q: How can people donate?

A: We have our address; it is PO Box 297 in Clovis, 88101. They can also call the Mission at 575-762-1933. And then of course, they can drop off at our physical address at 407 L. Casillas Blvd. We want to say thank you to the community for supporting us throughout these years.

- Compiled by Landry Sena, the Staff of the News