The Mission holds 5K walk/run

The Mission in Durant hosted “The Coldest Night of the Year” 5K walk/ run Saturday evening. This is a national walk to serve people experiencing hurt, hunger, and homelessness.

The Mission assists the homeless by helping them rebuild their lives and return them to the community as independent and contributing members of society.

It was not cold, however, and it was a nice night for the event that raised $13,062.

Marissa Bancewicz, executive director of The Mission, spoke to participants in the First Baptist Church Family Life Center before the event began.

She thanked everyone for their fundraising efforts and also the sponsors, Cardinal Glass, Complete OK Home Health & Hospice and Pinnacle Care Oklahoma.

“This fundraiser is so important for our community because it is giving The Mission the ability to continue to serve our neighbors experiencing homelessness,” Bancewicz said. “We are able to provide showers, laundry, meals and more support services to our guests while we build relationships and love on them.

“Four of those guests have transitioned into full-time residents who are rebuilding their lives so they can be independent and self-sufficient once again. This is a huge win, and we would not be able to do this without the support of you, our community.”

Bancewicz, speaking during an interview, said there were 40 different locations having the event at the same time and night to raise awareness for the homeless and hungry.

She said The Mission offers days services twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“Anyone experiencing homelessness can come in and take a shower do laundry and have a meal,” Bancewicz said. “We also are there just to love on them and build relationships with them so that way, we can figure out how else we can help them whether that be IDs, birth certificate, looking for housing, looking for employment, and we can also connect them with other organizations that we’re linked to as well in the town.”

She said the four full-time residents are in The Mission’s transitional resident program.

“They’re learning how to rebuild their lives with life skills and stabilization and employment so they can be self-sufficient again,” Bancewicz said.

The Mission opened for day services in March 2021 and the transitional resident program began last September.

“Last year, we served 176 individuals, and now, we’re almost to 70, just for January and February,” Bancewicz said.

She said that in the future, The Mission would like to build apartments in the back of their property at 4310 University Boulevard. This would be another transitional step from living in The Mission to being semiindependent in an apartment until the residents are out on their own.

Bancewicz said there are many homeless people from the local area and that others have come from Dallas. She cited costs of living as factors such as expensive housing costs as reasons for people becoming homeless, and also the inability to maintain upkeep of a home.

“There are some homes being condemned to where they aren’t able to get their electric or whatever turned on so they end up having their home condemned, so that makes them homeless,” Bancewicz said.

Choctaw Nation Police, Durant Police and Southeastern Police assisted with escorting and traffic control during the walk.