Paula Merritt / The Meridian StarChristie Rainer is recognized for her addressing and raising awareness about issues of homelessness in Meridian and the surrounding area.

It is with great pleasure that I submit my nomination for Mrs. Christie Rainer for consideration as a 2017 Unsung Hero in recognition of her outstanding efforts in addressing and raising awareness about issues of homelessness in Meridian and the surrounding area.  

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Meridian struggles with what so many other cities and communities across the United States, and across the globe, struggle with in staggering numbers: homelessness.

While many, more progressive communities have taken social and legislative steps to address the crisis that so many men, women, children and families, are faced with every single day (a lack of food, shelter, running water, heat in cold, bitter winters, mental difficulties, healthcare access, clothing themselves), Meridian is not one of them. We have an overwhelming lack of municipal programs and organizations that work actively to locate people(s) that pose the possibility of becoming homeless, and therefore become one more of what feels so many people see as “just a number,” as opposed to a neighbor.

With a lack of convenient access to functioning shelters, a place to sleep at night, or shower without self-degrading and humiliating affects, much less counseling, or just someone to lend an ear without judgement, it is easy to see why Meridian, especially, struggles to get ahead of this issue in order to help reverse it. When someone has lost their home, their job, eventually, all hope of being able to individually help themselves falls along the wayside; people turn to the streets, and so many are never able to return to a life of comfort, like so many of us blindly enjoy.

But it is staggering how the efforts of one person — one particular person — can truly make a difference in addressing an immediate resolution. Through her 28 years as an RN through Laird & Rush Hospital, Christie saw firsthand the problems of struggling to gain access to appropriate care, medical attention, and difficulty gaining attention for wounds and issued that were in dire need of addressing for the homeless community — the obvious majority of whom cannot afford services themselves.

Her Christian compassion and genuine motivation for how to better serve the community led her to open ASLANe’s Mission in Broadmoor here in Meridian, a nonprofit facility through which she has offered dozens of homeless men and women of the community a place to work, access to free health clinic, an ear to a population of people who get shunned, cursed at, or even physically harmed everyday as they beg for food, struggle with addiction and problems just like so many others face.

She strives to educate through initiatives within the community, starting fundraisers, creating conversations around areas for improvement, ways to gain the support and involvement of others within the community, and finding avenues for job and housing placement for those within the homeless community who she has worked with and listened to, very closely.

She works tirelessly to, “plug holes that are left by other agencies in the lives of those living in disparity,” by giving a marginalized group of people in this small town a voice, an ear, and a constructive, compassionate helping hand. Christie has created a program like none other in Meridian, to help what I see every single day in the downtown and surrounding area as an extremely under-discussed problem.

It is because of Christie’s efforts on behalf of Meridian’s homeless, that they are even able to have access to the necessities in life. If it were not through her efforts with ASLANe’s Mission, many in the area perhaps would not still have the hope that is so relevant to their survival.

As one of those whom Christie has inspired and motivated to become more actively aware and engaged in our local conversations about addressing the areas where we can work actively to prevent more in this community to fall victim of such a difficult circumstance, I strongly commend her as a 2017 Unsung Hero.