B THE LIGHT
B the Light Update: New Beginnings by Miriam Walker Welcome to September, as we eagerly await cooler temperatures and a changing of the season! Parents in our city bid a farewell to their college students, and others welcomed a peaceful reprieve, as all ages headed back to higher learning. Well, I welcomed the reprieve. Lol. And as I sit here writing, I find my own mind wondering how my son will ever survive without his 8 daily snacks and 3 lunches. The poor boy is probably famished at this very moment. As promised last month, we are diving deeper into what Phase 2 means for our unhoused clients here at B the Light. BUT FIRST - every room on the second level is now complete! The showers, toilets and urinals will go in within the next three weeks. We’d like to send a HUGE SHOUT OUT to our very own Rock Minghetti for making Phase 2 a reality. Rock and his crew at MinCon Services have been working tirelessly to get our 2nd floor complete. We couldn’t do any of this without him. With phase 2 our clients have now been with us for 15 months. Some have found work outside of B the Light and may already hold employment in our city. New beginnings rarely begin without help, and we’ll continue to network with companies here in Bartlesville, that might want to partner with us in the way of gainful employment for our formerly homeless neighbors. If this is something that your company or business is interested in, please, don’t hesitate to reach out to us! In Phase 2 they will now have their own room. The shared kitchen space and lounge is something that offers our clients a sense of normalcy. Some have been homeless for so long that they’ve forgotten what normal really looks like, or what it feels like. Phase 2 is getting them closer to a life no longer dependent on outside resources, and one that includes their own address. Each step takes them closer to what they may have imagined their life would be, once upon a time. Their story is not over, and B the Light is helping them to rewrite it. We were given approval from the Fire Marshall, and we’re installing our smoke detectors now, but are still waiting for our CO2 detectors. Once they arrive they will be promptly installed. Rest assured, we are still utilizing all of our resources to assist those that come to us for help. We’ve said all along that although we are not ready to house the homeless overnight, we are still open to serve anyone that come through our doors. I had an opportunity to sit down this week with our City Councilman for Ward 4, Aaron Kirkpatrick. Many in our city have been following the Unsheltered Homelessness Task Force from
the beginning. Aaron let me know that they have extended the Task Force for an additional 6 months, and will have quarterly meetings moving forward, to oversee the roll out of implemented items from the original 6th month time frame. This will ensure that both our unhoused neighbors as well as those who are housed, will continue to have a voice on the things that are most important. COMING UP on October 22nd, will be one of those implemented items. The Helping Organization Summit will give all helping organizations an opportunity to to report what they’ve learned on the state of homelessness here in our city. They will also learn about all of the resources that are available for our unsheltered population. Lunch will be provided by Agape Mission and The Lighthouse, registration is required, and seating is limited. Be watching for registration information on Aaron’s social media pages. The Helping Organization Summit takes place on Wednesday October 22nd at Tri County Tech, from 11:00 to 1:00. This is an exciting development for our unsheltered neighbors, as this will bring us closer to helping them in the most tangible ways. Many of our Wesleyan college students are back, and over 200 of them will be coming to donate their time in the next couple of weeks. They are so appreciated in this community, and we are honored to be a part of their lives. OKWU also donated 40 armoires and as many chest of drawers for our residents. THANK YOU! The homelessness issue in America right now is very complicated, although it need not be. For every person that has gone through horrible tragedies that caused them to spiral downward and then end up on the streets, there are the same number of people who have gone through similar circumstances, but had a different outcome. Perhaps their result did not cause them to lose everything, including a place to live. Maybe they had help, family, or a different mindset of hope altogether. The point is, homelessness in America will never completely go away, and this is indeed unfortunate. But if we could begin to look at our homeless neighbors through a prism of humanity FIRST, then we will begin to realize that they are just like us. They wake up, they live, they have bad things happen, they sometimes lose control, they mask pain, and often they make choices that don’t always end well. We all experience these things from time to time. Perhaps we just had a different outcome. And there but for the grace of God, go US… See you next month.
SEPTEMBER 2025 | bmonthly
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