Mount Pleasant Magazine March/April 2016

The hibben Cold WeaTher ShelTer

FiniSheS anoTher buSy year

Warm Regards

Al Bradshaw-

Whittemore,

co-director of the

Hibben United

Methodist Church

Cold Weather Shelter,

and volunteer

Doreen Bagley of

James Island.

Photos by Brian Sherman.

ust three short years ago, the

wintry weather of the Lowcountry inspired a

group of Hibben United Methodist Church

members to reach out to the community in

a big way. A congregation member known as

“Beth” was able to stay at the church dur-

ing an ice storm and proposed a new idea:

What if Hibben UMC regularly offered four

walls and a roof to those who needed it? Thus

was Mount Pleasant’s cold weather

shelter born.

Around that same time, Al Bradshaw-Whittemore was

a fairly new member of Hibben UMC and looking for

ways to give back to his church family. A transplant from

Birmingham, Alabama, and a chemical engineer by trade,

Al’s giving spirit initially prompted him to teach Sunday

school classes and participate in I-Beam, a mentoring pro-

gram that helps build literacy, self esteem and other skills.

He’d come armed with experience, having taught adult

Sunday school classes back in Birmingham, and soon dis-

covered another way to extend his helping hand through

the cold weather shelter.

“When the bridge froze, Beth, a member of Hibben,

convinced us to open our doors to the homeless,” he re-

By DenISe K. JAMeS