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What's Brewing

A shelter for young revelers

By SUSAN THURSTON
Published January 27, 2006

While mobs of us scrounge for beads on Saturday, a group of teens will be on the hunt for something considerably less fun.

Drunk teenagers.

Members of the youth ministry at St. John's Episcopal Church will scour the Gasparilla parade route for kids who soaked in too much of the party and will take them to the church's Safe House to sleep it off.

History shows the young volunteers won't have to search hard. Just look in the bushes, on the sidewalks and in strangers' yards. Underage drinking is a big zit on Gasparilla.

St. John's started the Safe House several years ago in an effort to reach out to the community in a nonpreachy way. Rather than lock the doors and erect a fence, the church wanted to offer shelter from the raucous partying just a block away.

Over the years, the volunteers have seen just about everything from the front porch of the house next to the main church on S Orleans Avenue. A middle-age couple having sex on the street corner and revelers peeing, pooping and vomiting everywhere.

Nasty.

The Safe House gives people a place to rest, rehydrate and relax. Most are 15 to 19 years old, though all ages are welcome. It opens by 11 a.m. and typically gets its first customer by noon - two hours before the parade starts.

"These are the kids whose parents are letting them go with a group for the first time and then, shazam, they are out cold," said Diane Tummillo, an annual Safe House volunteer.

Coincidentally, the house is one block from Plant High School's unofficial Gasparilla hangout on Willow Avenue.

Depending on the weather, about 60 people a year end up at the house, many of them dropped off by friends who head back to the fun. Others stumble in saying, "I think I've had too much to drink, and I'm worried that if I pass out, something bad will happen to me," Tummillo said.

The volunteers give them water, a change of clothes and a bucket. They promise they won't call their parents or police, unless their lives are at risk, which has been the case a few times.

The label on the water bottles includes a verse from the book of Matthew: Do not judge or you will be judged.

Some of the kids spend all day at the house, passed out on bean bag chairs. The church opted for the bean bags after too many kids rolled off the cots.

Directing the show will be Leland Baldwin, St. John's youth director since June. This marks her first Gasparilla at the Safe House, and she's bracing for anything.

Normally, she'd be partying at the Tampa Yacht and Country Club, taking a boat to a friend's place on Davis Islands and watching the parade from the Bank of Tampa on Bayshore Boulevard.

Saturday, she'll be helping kids to the toilet, pouring out puke and holding kids' hands.

"I love Gasparilla, but my heart is here with the kids," said Baldwin, a mother of three boys ages 12, 9 and 2.

The church rarely, if ever, hears back from anyone who goes to the Safe House, probably because they don't remember it. But the impact on the young volunteers often changes their attitudes toward drinking.

One girl told Baldwin, "I never want to look like those girls. They are out of control, and they are making fools of themselves."

The volunteers prefer to preach kindness rather than the Bible. They might silently pray for a kid in particularly bad shape, but you won't see any prayer circles calling for the release of demons.

Baldwin looks forward to the experience, even if she won't catch a bead.

"At the end of the day, you feel like you made a difference," she said. "You're like, wow. I did something positive on Gasparilla. I just didn't drink to oblivion. I helped people."

THE LAST DROP: Who cares if the welcome to Tampa signs include recognition of the New York Yankees. I say do away with the signs altogether. Tampa has too many signs cluttering up the right of way.

- Susan Thurston can be reached at 226-3394 or thurston@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 26, 2006, 08:57:08]