Cloud Covered Streets nonprofit asking for volunteers to help ‘shower the streets' with love

Fort Worth nonprofit Cloud Covered Streets needs volunteer hairstylists, barbers and people to interact with clients they serve who are experiencing homelessness.

As temperatures start to rise in Texas, so does the need for volunteers with the Fort Worth nonprofit Cloud Covered Streets.

"Sometimes at this location, we have between 90 and 100 people that we're serving," Cloud Covered Streets Fort Worth Chapter President Maggie Smith said. "Our goal is to see these people be able to have a haircut and a shower and get to go apply for a job somewhere."

Cloud Covered Streets provides free haircuts, mobile showers, laundry services and clean clothing for people experiencing homelessness.

"Do you know how we feel when you're wet, and you're cold, and you come here and get a bath, and you're warm, and you're dry," Cloud Covered Streets client Adrienne asked. "To you, that's nothing cause you go home and do that, it means everything cause one morning that was me."

On a Friday morning, Cloud Covered Streets set up at the Broadway Baptist Church on the corner of West Broadway and May in Fort Worth. A line of volunteer hairstylists got to work in an outdoor pop-up salon, while other volunteers helped clients call friends, get their laundry done and pick up clean clothes. Other volunteers played Bingo and had conversations with those who gathered.

"Sometimes if you're in a tough place, it might be hard to smile or have a conversation with people, but bingo, it's not rocket science, so it's an easy game," TCU student volunteer Lindsey Gattis said. "It's really just fulfilling and allows me to focus on the important things in life, like positive connections and not to sweat the small stuff. I mean, these people are just coming out here, and a game like bingo gives them so much joy!"

"I'm the queen of bingo, ain't nobody beating me," Adrienne said with an ear-to-ear smile. "You go in there, you feel revitalized, and you win bingo, and then they're gonna give you something to make you feel amazing. I'm telling you, these guys are amazing!"

"There's a stigmatism on these people," Smith said. "Everybody has a story, and that's the biggest thing, is that we can just sit there at those tables and communicate, listen."

Cloud Covered Streets is looking for skilled volunteers, like hairstylists and barbers, as well as people who can volunteer their time to show a little compassion and love to another human being.

"It's really something that has changed my whole perspective on life as a whole, and I'm so grateful for this experience," Gattis said.

"It gives me hope. It gives me hope," Adrienne said.

For more information about becoming a volunteer with Cloud Covered Streets, click here.