Operation Mercy Call is
a helpline for all in need, who are walking, living , or suffering in the woods or along the roads of Citrus County without a home.Business Owners , Churches , and those driving can help by calling our hotline.We will come and pick them up at your business , church , or along the roads.We also provide food , tents, sleeping bags , lanterns , hygiene items and much more to make them as comfortable as possible till shelter is available.There are those in the woods that can not live at shelters, due to past issues and the unwillingness to seek help for their addictions. We still provide humanitarian help.No one should feel unloved or unwanted without any
hope.Please help us….Help Others… God bless 794-3825 Jim – Founder 270 – Help ( 4357 )
Operation Mercy Call is a volunteer led initiative to seek food donations, host food drives, collect donated food, purchase food, and deliver it to wooded areas throughout Citrus County where Veterans, men, women and children stay until shelter is available.The Mission also delivers meals when needed and possible to those in homes without transportation.
The name speaks for itself. Mercy is for everyone..All it takes is a call and being a Good Samaritan…
[email protected]
My vision was that the homeless could help themselves when given the proper resources.They have made me very proud.The pictures above are pictures of Winn Dixie Executives and managers giving the Mission in Citrus
$ 25,000 Checks to help the many Veterans , men, women and children in the woods. Our hats are off to them for making it all happen.
Thanks to Operation Mercy Call, Robert has a new life.Always a faithful student Inverness homeless veteran weighs future after excellence at WTC By Special to the Chronicle Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 8:24 pm
“Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” —Thomas A. Edison By Ed Youngblood, Special to the Chronicle
Robert Hren will soon graduate from Withlacoochee Technical College with a certificate in Industrial Maintenance. Over the past two years, he has had perfect attendance, maintained a 4.0 grade point average, and been inducted into the National Technical Honor Society. He is also a veteran, homeless and has no transportation. Too often homelessness is equated with people who won’t take initiative. Hren is a man who belies this cruel stereotype. From his childhood in Michigan to the present, he has worked hard and maintained a good middle class life. If anything, he is a man whose fate warns that it can happen to anyone. Hren was born March 27, 1963, in Holland, Michigan. He grew up in what might be considered a “normal” environment. He had a brother seven years younger, his father worked in middle management for the National Standard Wire Corp., and his mother was a homemaker.
After graduating from high school in Hesperia, Michigan, Hren joined the Marine Corps, where he served four years on active duty in the Far East and at Camp Lejeune. He received two commendations while active and stayed another two years in the reserves. While in the reserves, Hren went to work at Duke University Medical Center, operating its printing presses. He remained at Duke until 1998 when he left to pursue higher pay at commercial printing companies. He was married in 2000, but the marriage lasted only three years. He has no children. For 10 years he worked for printers in Indiana, then relocated to Texas, seeking a warmer climate. After a year in Texas, he came to Citrus County, to Beverly Hills. He said, “I had some savings, but nothing lined up. I could not find work, and stayed in a hotel and looked for work until the money dried up, then suddenly I found myself homeless.” Because he is a veteran, Hren was qualified to move into Mission in Citrus in Inverness, a shelter run by Mission in Citrus Inc., a nonprofit charity founded in 2008 by James Sleighter that provides 18,000 bednights, 55,000 meals and other material support for homeless veterans annually.
Sleighter looked at Hren’s situation, and suggested he update his education, possibly with a welding class at WTC. (For more about Mission in Citrus, access www.missionincitrus.com). Hren said, “I took Jim’s advice about a welding class, but found so much more that I was interested in. WTC had many classes that dovetailed nicely with my work in printing.” Qualifying for a Pell Grant to cover his tuition and books, Hren returned to school, walking every day the onehour round trip from the shelter to the WTC. He hasn’t missed a day during the past year, and has completed his curriculum with honors. During this time, Hren has taken parttime jobs when he could. He said Mission in Citrus has a “pay what you can, when you can” policy, and he has tried to support when he could. There are also duties for the residents to keep the facility clean and tidy, inside and out. The Inverness mission is in an attractive neighborhood, and except for proudly flown military flags, one can’t distinguish it from the other residences. Hren said, “The worst thing about being homeless is that it is a constant struggle.
You worry every day about meeting your needs and what the future holds.” He added, “I could not have done what I’ve done without Jim Sleighter and the camaraderie of the other vets at the shelter. Because of our common experience, we are all able to give and share moral support.” One might think that with his superior performance at WTC, Robert Hren would be able to worry a little less these days. He said this is Breaking News: Former county supervisor gets 4 years in grand theft case Updated: 1:54 pm 5/20/2015 Always a faithful student | ChronicleOnline.com http://www.chronicleonline.com/content/alwaysfaithfulstudent 2/2 not so, and that the pressure may be even greater. He said, “I am at a crossroad. I thought that this was the point where I would have a job. But others have encouraged me to stay in school. They think I have the potential to earn an engineering degree at a school like Central Florida College.” It’s a pivotal decision about his future that Hren must make very soon. But whatever path he chooses, he has proven to himself and others that adversity does not eliminate opportunity. It only offers it in different ways.