THERESA CAMPBELL | Staff Writer

theresacampbell@dailycommercial.com

Walking back into deep wooded areas of Fruitland Park on one of the coldest days of winter, Lloyd Thorne and Helen Shaut deliver blankets, sleeping bags, food and coats to the homeless.

The pair operates Veterans Organization of Resource and Recovery for the Homeless (VORRH), which has a homeless shelter for veterans in Eustis.

They also make it their mission to travel to homeless camps throughout the area, from Ocala to Eustis, several times each month to make sure people like Griff, Pat, Danny, Cindy, and others are OK. Any medical concerns also are addressed.

"They're angels," said Griff, 50, a homeless widower who was grateful to receive a thick, warm gray coat. "Lloyd and Helen are wonderful people."

Griff has been homeless for five years, ever since his wife died. The former master carpenter/builder remembers better days of building houses in Orlando.

Then the recession hit.

"I lost my job," he said.

As much as he longs for better days again, he's not certain he could meet the physical demands that come with the job.

"I don't know if my body can do it, because I hurt my back, my shoulders," Griff said.

"Nothing is easy out here," he added, noting it's a long walk just to fetch fresh water. He relies on $200 a month in food stamps to survive.

Cindy, 51 and a widow, gets the same amount in food stamps. She pitches in to help others at the camp who do not receive any financial assistance.

"If there is something that Danny needs, I can go get it for him," she said of one of her friends. "We take care of each other."

She's also one of the newer people at the camp, having arrived a month ago. She became homeless after she lost her job and fell behind on her rent.

"When I first got out here I thought I can't do this, but you learn to survive," Cindy said. "We do what we have to do."

She moved to Florida in 2004 from St. Louis after her husband died. Her only child also is deceased, as is her father.

She strives to turn her attention to what is good moment-to-moment in her life.

"There was a lady who saw me Tuesday on the street when it was so cold out. She went to the store and came back, and from the car window she said, 'Here! You need this jacket," Cindy said. "I was blessed."

She was welcomed with open arms at the camp, she said, where she was given the tent that had once belonged to Sandie Wilbanks, a 53-year-old widowed grandmother.

Wilbanks had lived in the woods for five years before she accepted help from VOHHR. She moved into her own apartment in Eustis last September.

Wilbanks hasn't forgotten the homeless in the woods. She invited her former campsite neighbors to come stay with her last Tuesday night when it was freezing cold. Cindy was among the guests who took her up on the invite and cooked a Hamburger Helper meal for Wilbanks in return.

"I noticed the other day that McDonald's is hiring," said Cindy, who hopes to be able to work again. " I would like to get a job there, as I have worked for them before. I want to get a job and save some money."

Some of the homeless try to receive money by "flying on the corner," as the call it where they spend part of their days holding handmade signs on public grounds that read: "In the woods. Anything does help."

Pat, 45, never imagined he would be one of the homeless holding the sign. A carpenter by trade, he recalled the days when he built custom homes in Connecticut.

"I built homes for Billy Joel, Martha Stewart and I built some real fancy homes," he said of the days before coming to The Villages where he worked in construction for six years and made as much as $800 a week.

He lost his job when the bottom fell out of the construction market, and he began doing day labor work until even that became harder to find.

Pat moved into the woods prior to Thanksgiving, after he could no longer afford to live in the mobile home he has owned for 18 years.

"I had to abandon it because I can't pay lot rent of $300 a month," he said.

Yet, his spirits were brightened over the holidays by gifts from people and handmade Christmas cards with words of encouragement from children of a local church. The cards have remained hung at the camps.

"There are people that give us cookies and some went to Sonics to get hamburgers for us," Pat said. "They'd say, 'God bless ya, I hope you get out of the woods,' and it really meant a lot."

How to help

Who: Veterans Organization of Resource and Recovery for the Homeless (VORRH)

What: VORRH has a homeless shelter for veterans in Eustis and VORRH also goes out to check on the homeless living in the woods.

Wish list: VORRH wants to obtain more houses to serve more people in need.

Donations: May be sent online to VOHHR.org or mailed to 902 South Grove St., Eustis, FL.

Call: 552-3899 or 702-8245 to learn more about VOHHR