Prospects looked grim for the Grays Harbor Youth Center two weeks ago — financial struggles meant it was going to terminate daytime hours on Dec. 15, and that youth in the area could only use the shelter for overnight service. Instead, an unexpected $25,000 check came through from the Amerigroup health insurance company, which allows the Aberdeen youth shelter to continue full-time operation through the holiday season and into mid-February.

“This is really a reboot for us, and it gives us some time to pursue additional funding strategies to keep that going through the year,” said Mike Curry, director of operations at Catholic Community Services of Western Washington, which manages the shelter. “It’s totally unanticipated, unsolicited and truly a Christmas miracle for us.”

Less than a week after the shelter notified two of its four full time staff members that they would be laid off due to the funding issues, Amerigroup marketing director David Escame happened to come across a 2015 Facebook post advertising that the shelter was in need of fresh fruit donations. Escame knew that his company still had $5,000 to give out before the year’s end, and thought the shelter would be a great place to spend the money. Upon contacting his Seattle high school friend Keith Crovisier, who made the post and is now a Grays Harbor resident, Escame learned that the shelter was in danger of losing its daytime hours.

“I thought, ‘Well, there’s some food insecurity issues, this $5,000 will go a long way,’ but then I called and heard about the whole closure situation,” said Escame, who then went back to find more money to keep the shelter open. “I was working on a project out in Pend Oreille County, and they couldn’t solidify their end of the project, and that freed up $20,000 on the same day I had my conversation with the shelter.”

Escame then made a visit from Seattle to the shelter Friday morning to present the check, where more than 20 volunteers and staff celebrated the extended full-time hours. Kathy Voshell, one of the workers who was scheduled to be laid off this week, was mostly glad that the youth wouldn’t lose their daytime service.

“I was thankful for the kids more than anything, but it was scary to find out about the (lack of) funding so quick, because we had no notice,” said Voshell, who is still concerned the shelter could return to nighttime-only operation if funding runs out in February. “I worry for the kids, because if they get displaced some have nowhere to go and tend to find trouble, whereas here they have a stable environment.”

Escame said his job involves looking at “social determinants of health, and to drive health forward,” which means giving funding out to local organizations that work on areas such as homelessness, education and social justice issues.

The shelter first opened in 2007 with just overnight hours, but eventually they received a six-year federal grant that required them to stay open 24 hours a day. Curry said it became clear that local youth tend to have better outcomes in life if they have the shelter to return to at all times.

“With just overnight hours, we learned that you can’t effectively engage in outreach, and that youth will pursue unhealthy options for where they can be housed and get help when they don’t have somewhere they can be consistently,” said Curry. “That was hard for us early on when we had a kid with a fever, and we had to kick him out the door at 8 a.m. because we didn’t have a way to keep him in. That’s why it’s really essential to maintain those daytime hours.”

However, it’s been a challenge to maintain funding. Their grant manager retracted the shelter’s federal funding two years ago, explaining that it was financially impractical to have daytime hours when it only has six beds that were not consistently occupied. Even after the donation from Amerigroup, Curry said they have been “desperately looking for another source of longterm funding,” and haven’t found one, but are pursuing a number of new strategies now. The county also awarded the youth shelter $140,000 in operating funds in early December.