Retiree still works hard to aid homeless citizens

Jesse Gatewood, a volunteer in the shower area of the Jericho Way Homeless Day Center, learned his giving ways from his mother while growing up in Lonoke. Under her direction, he would deliver firewood and groceries to neighbors in need.
Jesse Gatewood, a volunteer in the shower area of the Jericho Way Homeless Day Center, learned his giving ways from his mother while growing up in Lonoke. Under her direction, he would deliver firewood and groceries to neighbors in need.

A beaming grin spreads across Jesse Gatewood's face as he sits in a small chair inside Jericho Way Homeless Day Center, a daytime place of refuge for the homeless to shower, eat and do laundry.

He's sitting next to a table with towels, as well as boxes of shampoo, soap and razor blades. It's a little after 7 a.m., and the first round of clients is being ushered through the door. Gatewood greets each one warmly with a towel and writes his or her name on a clipboard.

"We value people here," Gatewood, 69, says as he hands a woman a packet of shampoo. "This is a dignity thing."

With just three showers and a line of people, he runs a pretty efficient system.

"I organize and put order to showers and the using of the restroom because we have so many people coming in and so few shower and restroom stalls, you have to have some order to it," he says.

Gatewood has spent his Monday and Tuesday mornings manning Jericho Way's shower area for the last 2 1/2 years. It's one of more than a dozen volunteer gigs he has had since he retired in 2010, although he prefers to use the term "evolve" rather than retire, mostly because he has been helping others in every phase of his life.

As a child growing up in Lonoke, he delivered firewood and groceries to the homes of elderly people in the community. His mother worked at a beauty shop in town and would direct him to the houses.

"She is my role model in ... doing for others, and I haven't stopped since," he says.

He graduated from the former Grambling College (now Grambling State University) in Louisiana with a bachelor's degree in health and physical education. He followed with a master's degree in psychology from Harding University in Searcy.

Gatewood then began a career that spanned four decades as a counselor and administrator for Arkansas Disability Services, working with patients with varying disabilities.

"That's his nature. He loves helping people who need it," says his wife, Ada.

Gatewood retired early, in 2004, to help care for his ailing parents. He also did it to collect annuities to put toward repairing his parents' home, which had been eaten away by termites.

After a five-year stint as an associate psychology professor at Philander Smith College from 2005 to 2010, he retired again and now focuses solely on volunteering. Don't mistake that for him slowing down, though, because Ada begs to differ.

"He's about the same," she says. "He doesn't know when to stop."

Jericho Way provides a place for the homeless to go from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. weekdays. The center serves more than 130 people daily and provided 10,722 meals from January to April of this year alone. Laundry facilities are provided, as well as help finding employment and housing. With a small paid staff, Jericho Way relies a lot on volunteers such as Gatewood to carry out all its services.

Gatewood works with a man named Glenn Anderson, who has been volunteering for about 10 months and was recently put on staff. Anderson was once homeless, and Jericho Way helped him get back on his feet.

"I am moving forward man. Let's put it that way," Anderson says, smiling.

Together, they restock the table of soap, shampoo and other toiletries. Anderson runs it alone on the days Gatewood isn't there, and also is in charge of the laundry. He hopes to save up enough money to eventually return home to Myrtle Beach, S.C., where his family lives.

"We're going to get this man home," Gatewood says.

Jericho Way is renovating the bottom level of its building to provide additional showers and more space for doing laundry.

"We will really have it rolling when that gets done," Gatewood says.

His work at Jericho Way takes him back to his days as a counselor, though he is able to escape many aspects of it.

"I don't want to counsel. I don't want to do any administration. I just want to respect them and dignify them when they take showers," he says. "Here you go. Here is a nice fluffy towel for you, some soap, a razor. Let's find some clothes. I can access all of those things and I love it."

More information on services offered at Jericho Way Homeless Day Center is available on its Facebook page, www.facebook.com/jerichowaylittlerock/ or by calling (501) 916-9859.

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After more than four decades as a counselor, Jesse Gatewood no longer wants to offer advice. He’s happy passing out towels and toiletries to the homeless who come to shower at the Jericho Way Homeless Day Center.

High Profile on 07/30/2017

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