FLORENCE, Ky. — Randy Flexner points into the backseat of his car.
“There’s my kitchen,” Flexner said.
He walks around the front, reaching inside.
“And here’s my coffee counter,” Flexner said.
He pulls out a baby blue cup that says: Let the adventure begin.
Flexner is in the parking lot of Florence Christian Church. Because church officials run a program that offers free showers for people experiencing homelessness.
And Flexner knows it costs $18 for one at TravelCenters of America and $17 at Flying J.
“Being homeless is hard enough,” Flexner said. “Being grimy makes it feel all the worse."
WATCH: Giving dignity back with showers
Inside the building, in what used to be storage space, Danielle Woods folds laundry. She’s been volunteering at the Fresh Start Shower Ministry for two years now. Before that, after her mom died, she mostly lived in the woods and took showers here for nine months.
"Mondays was our favorite day,” Woods said. “Because two days without a shower is kind of wild.”
Now, she’s found housing and tries to help people get into rehab. She says her work here helps her stay sober.
“We make ourselves a family,” Woods said. “Because they don’t get treated like human beings out there. But you come in here, and we treat everyone the same — whether we like you or not.”
She laughs and throws a load of clothes into the washer. Woods tells me that her daughter is now in her second semester of college. She smiles while telling me her GPA is 3.0.
Beyond showers, volunteers here wash clothes for people and try to connect them to other services — including dental visits, haircuts and medicaid assistance. In the courtyard, there's a half-gallon of chocolate milk on the ground. Under the bench, there are a pair of black socks. A bottle of milk from Chick-fil-A sits on top.
This is just outside Pastor Susan Diamond's office.
“All I can tell you is that when people get a shower, they feel human,” Diamond said. “We’ve seen lives change.”
In the last year, the organization says it's had more than 12,000 visits. And now that summer is approaching, Diamond tells me they need help more than ever. Because other programs offered by county officials during the cold weather have subsided.
“Every person deserves grace, and that is what we're here to do,” said Sam Combs, the operations director at the shower ministry. “To provide grace for folks that oftentimes are looked down upon.”
Outside the front door, Flexner pours a bottle of water into an empty McDonald's cup. Then, he throws a blanket onto the ground. His dog, Lois, tries to eat my camera's microphone.
He offers the dog a piece of fried chicken from inside the church.
"It feels like I'm in the right place," Flexner said. “I’m happy."
Want to help?
The shower ministry is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday through Friday in Florence. For a list of suggested donation items, click on this link.
