Safe Nights, safe home

Zaversniks work to keep Calvert’s homeless sheltered during winter months with program

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by DARWIN WEIGEL Mary Ann and Joseph Zaversnik of Huntingtown headed up the Safe Nights program for the homeless. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

Between them, they have each lost a spouse, have worked in government jobs, have two children (his), have a strong belief in the Catholic faith and have helped organize a grassroots organization called ‘‘Safe Nights” in Calvert County.

Mary Ann Zaversnik was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in Charles and Prince George’s counties, the only girl in a family of four children. She prospered and learned what it was like to do good deeds under the eye of her caring and loving mother. Her mom made sure that they had a Catholic upbringing. She says that her good qualities come from her.

‘‘My mother was a saint to me,” she said. ‘‘She was a very compassionate person, persevering and faithful. She brought us up with wonderful qualities. She always told us that you should do unto others as they would do unto you.”

She worked in the personnel field for more than 20 years for the Small Business Administration and found that she was drifting away from her faith a little bit. Her first marriage lasted for 39 years before she lost her husband to lung cancer in 2002.

‘‘When my late husband died, my younger brother [Norman] was there for me,” she said. ‘‘He would cut my grass, even when he had his own family to take care of. He is also an inspiration to me because he would do anything for anybody.”

Fulfilling a promise to her late husband to go back to church, she went back into the church and became quickly involved with all of their activities.

‘‘I started meeting people and I was welcomed,” she said. ‘‘I was asked to participate in some of the ministries and I became a eucharistic minister. All the things I do in the church led me to Safe Nights.”

The Safe Nights program was a collaboration between several churches in Calvert County. The churches alternated opening their doors to the county’s homeless population during the winter months, providing them a place to sleep, eat, stay warm and get cleaned up.

Fittingly enough, Mary Ann Zaversnik met her second husband Joe in church.

‘‘We didn’t intend to get married again,” Joe Zaversnik said. ‘‘One day after mass, she had turned one group down for coffee, and I came right along and asked her if she wanted to go for coffee. She said ‘yes,’ and we started dating.” They will have been married for two years in July.

Joe Zaversnik grew up in a coal miner community in Wyoming. He went to school and became an engineer and worked for the government for REA. An introvert, he also had a parent he could look up to and inspire him. His parents raised him Catholic and he received an excellent Catholic education. His dad was also generous with his time and would always help others.

‘‘After my mother died, I walked with my dad to a microwave tower five miles away, said the rosary and came back,” Joe said. ‘‘On that walk, I found out more about my dad than I had in my whole life.”

Joe and his wife were married for 39 years and raised two children, before she died from complications related to Multiple Sclerosis.

Mary Ann and Joe Zaversnik were first inspired by the Rev. Peter Daly at St. John Vianney Roman Catholic Church. Daly had invited Mary Ann Zaversnik to a meeting in November about the homeless in Calvert County and what could be done to help them. In December, they had a presentation with Charles County.

‘‘Neither Joe nor I had any experience running a shelter,” Mary Ann Zaversnik said. ‘‘We talked to [Project] ECHO about their procedures. Joe and I worked as a team, and we came to a conclusion including how to operate and what goes into a shelter.”

Daly had given a sermon on looking for volunteers for Safe Nights on Dec. 24, 2007. By Dec. 26, the Zaversniks were hooked.

‘‘[Daly] mentioned Safe Nights to us, and we thought when it comes due, he will ask us,” Joe Zaversnik said. ‘‘We knew by Dec. 26 that we had to get our act together. We started to write and we didn’t stop.”

‘‘They are wonderful people who are involved in everything,” Daly, of Prince Frederick, said. ‘‘They do social concerns, Good Samaritan ministry and Joe works the prayer line.”

Between the two of them, the Zaversniks worked out a plan for Safe Nights. Joe Zaversnik was the one that did all the research and wrote up the plan and Mary Ann Zaversnik did the footwork.

‘‘I started writing the documents and I looked at it as common sense,” Joe Zaversnik said. ‘‘We would e-mail back and forth until we got a copy we were satisfied with. We worked non-stop on this for three months.”

They both went over to a Charles County Safe Nights event with more than three dozen questions. All of the questions were answered and both of them saw how it could be done.

‘‘When [Daly] gave us the push over the edge to get it done, we were ready,” Joe Zaversnik said. ‘‘We could start. We knew what we had to do, and how we wanted to do it.”

They had help recruiting host shelters and collecting donations. They were extremely organized in undertaking the effort to develop the procedures and to take care of the safety of their guests. Mary Ann Zaversnik did a lot of the intake of the guests. They both sat down and ate with the guests for either breakfast or dinner during the program. According to Joe Zaversnik, they received enough donations to stock a small pharmacy.

‘‘They are thorough, organized and capable kind of people for Safe Nights,” Daly said. ‘‘They have done a fantastic job. Joe researches everything and Mary Ann has interpersonal skills. Together, their combined skills make it go and they support each other.”

They are known in the parish community as being good, strong people, a couple that can be relied on.

‘‘Mary Ann is very dedicated and sincere,” Mike Lewnes of Port Republic said. ‘‘She is interested in whatever problems there are, and solves them, especially with Safe Nights.”

Lewnes is the administrative assistant at the church.

While both admit that it was quite the undertaking for Safe Nights, they did enjoy their work.

‘‘We called them ‘the children’ and worried about them,” Joe Zaversnik said. ‘‘It’s well worth it and we are proud of what we did. We did the program because we believe in it. It’s a labor of love.”

Both agree that if they had to do it again, they would.

‘‘We were able to successfully house the homeless for two months this year,” Mary Ann Zaversnik said. ‘‘We wanted to be there because it was important for us to be a part of it, not just plan it. Next year, we are going to be part of the steering committee.”

The Zaversniks said the most important things that came out of the program were putting a face to the homeless and getting to know them and getting to know all the different religious denominations in the county. The Zaversniks plan to go before the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners to get help for next year’s Safe Nights.

Next year, Safe Nights is expected to run 22 weeks, from Nov. 1 through April 3.