BY SUSAN STEVENOT SULLIVAN

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Katie Bashor was a little nervous about the award she and her husband received recently. She is not comfortable in front of crowds and cameras, she said.

The award was for more than a decade of work with the homeless people of Atlanta. Katie and her husband, Mark Bashor, are at ease among dozens of homeless men each winter weekend, assessing which of the men are sober enough and calm enough to claim a meal and a sleeping spot at Central Night Shelter.

Mark Bashor began volunteering for night shelter work 15 years ago. He is, the couple believes, the only shelter director in Atlanta who is a volunteer. Mrs. Bashor, with 13 years' experience, coordinates the teams of volunteers needed to staff the shelter overnight and to provide an evening meal and a morning sack brunch for shelter guests.

Central Night Shelter is one operation with two adjacent locations at Central Presbyterian Church and the Catholic Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The shelter is maintained by the volunteerism of more than 50 groups, many of them Catholic parishes.

The Bashors each volunteer one weekend evening during the shelter season from Nov. 1 to March 31, screening and admitting homeless men outside the door of the shelter. While one works, the other stays home with their two children, Ryan, 11, and Jessie, 9.

The entire family attended an awards breakfast March 16, when Mr. and Mrs. Bashor and other honorees were recognized for their service by the Christian Council of Metropolitan Atlanta.

The Bashors with their children accepted the Mrs. Fred "Ida" Patterson Award for Exceptional Personal Ministry. Bashor, who regularly does committee work in Washington, D.C., as associate administrator for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry of the U.S. Public Health Service, made the family's acceptance speech.

After first checking to make sure his wife hadn't changed her mind about approaching the microphone, Bashor said they both were "very grateful and overwhelmed."

The award belongs to all of those who make the shelter possible, he said, an effort that is ecumenical and all volunteer. When he asked everyone attending the awards breakfast who had worked at the shelter to stand, more than 100 people rose to applause.

One who stood was Chris McKee, who has volunteered at the shelter about once a month for three years. McKee, 25, is pursuing a combined law and theological degree at Emory University.

"I was drawn to the Shrine for its outreach ministry and people like the Bashors," McKee said, "people who are committed to the poor, to social justice, to outreach ministry. Both of them give so much."

Also honored at the breakfast were Antioch Baptist Church North, the Revs. Murphy Davis and Ed Loring, and First Presbyterian Church. All were cited for their extensive outreach to people in need of help, providing shelter, food, clothing or other kinds of aid.

Keynote speaker Dr. Donald Harp, Jr., pastor of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, spoke of the necessity of "doing something" as the Olympics loom, casting aside doctrinal differences, concern about kudos, and distractions that derail individuals and congregations from the work God intends.

"This is the 'two-minute warning,'" he said. "Let us join hands and DO SOMETHING."

The Bashors, who are Shrine parishioners, have done just that since the beginning of their relationship. "We didn't meet at the shelter," Mrs. Bashor said with a laugh, "though a lot of people think so. We did, however, date at the shelter."

Mrs. Bashor, who has a degree in modern languages, works part time as an assistant teacher at the Decatur Presbyterian preschool in addition to her duties as shelter volunteer coordinator.

"Marist is working tonight," she said one Friday in March, itemizing the diverse groups who volunteer at the shelter, including medical professionals who provide a clinic and foot care for the homeless each Wednesday.

"We can take a total of 90 men at the shelters each night," she said. "We are full every night. We turn people away every single night."

Each night of the season two experienced volunteers must be present, she said. One works outside as the "street crew" to screen and admit that night's guests, while the other coordinates the volunteers inside. The Bashors are members of the "street crew."

"Our street crew is wonderful," she said. "It's a big commitment, one night a week. It takes a special kind of person. Being on the street is not the most fun job. People who don't get in (to the shelter) are angry."

The street crew come to know the guests. Once admitted to the shelter the first time, a guest can return every night that season if he arrives before 7:15 p.m.

Bashor implemented a referral and picture identification system last year to help screen out a small number of troublemakers. Guests sign in and the list is used the next night to call out names for admission to the shelter. Those whose names are called present their I.D.

"We just don't want anyone who's going to cause trouble inside the shelter," Mrs. Bashor said. "Those who have been drinking or who are looking for a fight-- we don't want the volunteers to have to deal with that. We have very few problems inside the shelter."

New guests are located through referral from such outreach operations as Cafe 458, Samaritan House and Central Outreach Center.

The number of referral openings varies with the weather and the day of the week and month. Many of the guests work day jobs and are less likely to need shelter on payday when they can afford a room for the night. Others use the shelter only when the weather is extreme.

Bashor said the tone he desires both for volunteers and guests is one of hospitality and respect. It takes about six visits, he said, to experience the shelter atmosphere.

"Just coming once," he said, "is like describing an elephant by looking at its foot."

"For me it's the challenge of it," Bashor said of shelter work. "It can challenge everything you believe in, everything you've been taught, everything you've thought about other people. It challenges that framework we all have. It pushes that framework up against people starving, people dying in the shelter."

"These men are hungry, tired, dirty, sick, angry and depressed," Mrs. Bashor said. "I can't believe how wonderful they are to the volunteers, considering what they're up against. They're joking around and cheerful."

"To witness the perseverance of the human spirit under incredibly degrading circumstances. . . to see them maintaining their dignity, their faith.. . you should hear them some of the prayer down there," she continued, speaking of optional church services presented by volunteers on Sunday evenings.

"Most of the time they don't pray for themselves," she marveled. "They pray for the volunteers. They give thanks. Most of us pray, 'I need, I want.' They pray for me and (sometimes) I've yelled at them."

"They are awesome," Bashor said. "The way they share with each other and the way they share with us. You pray with some of these people and there's a faith and a spirit there that I haven't even approached."

"So many of them have nothing to look forward to," he continued, "but they have a song on their lips when they leave in the morning. They understand gratitude for the gift of God's life in ways that I don't. I'm still grumpy in the morning."

Bashor said "breaking down barriers" is one of the central missions, or perhaps effects, of the shelter ministry.

"If hospitality and respect are the tone," he said, "breaking down barriers is one of the central missions. Finding out that these are real people. They have the same dreams, hopes, weaknesses and faults that we have. We need to break down the prejudices, the myths, the misunderstandings."

"The whole shelter should have gotten an award," Mrs. Bashor continued. "It's such an extraordinary effort by so many people for so many years. We've never missed (had to close) a night during the season. Mark and I have put in a lot of time, but so have a lot of other people. Somehow this little miracle comes off every night for five months."

"We receive outstanding support from more than 24 Catholic parishes," Bashor said. "More than half of our church groups are Catholic parishes. I want to say how much that means, how important that is. This is an award for all the people who make it happen, the volunteers and the guests."

The Bashors were surrounded by well-wishers for nearly half an hour after the awards breakfast ended.

"The best part," Mrs. Bashor said of the ceremony later, "was that they kept referring to us as a 'young couple.'"

Mrs. Bashor will doubtless have another award anecdote after April 10, when she receives a Channel 11 Community Service Award for her shelter work. The award will be presented at a black tie dinner on live television, a most intimidating forum for the acceptance remarks she's been dreading for weeks.

The possibility of new volunteers coming to help because of publicity is a potential benefit she welcomes. The Bashors are not accustomed to attention, but the awards recognize the uniqueness of their family's routine.

Their living room, furnished with several futons, reflects the fact that over the years they have had homeless people live with them. Their ministry is a fact of life for their children.

After Ash Wednesday services at the Shrine the entire family stopped at the shelter to say hello. Guests lined up to shake Ryan and Jessie Bashor's hands. That night, at home, Ryan asked a question that filled his mother with a variety of emotions.

"He asked me if, when Mark and I retire, he and Jessie will need to take over the shelter. I thought about my answer carefully--and told him only if they wanted to," she said.

Ryan and Jessie have taken the family ministry to school at Fernbank Elementary. Their classes prepare sack brunches once or twice a year. Ryan includes letters in the sacks he packs. The school holds drives for items the shelter needs, such as razors, shampoo, soap, shaving cream, socks, towels, toothbrushes and toothpaste.

"I think it's very important for children to feel like they can make a difference," Mrs. Bashor said. "It's very empowering. Everybody can do something, even a little bit."

Asked about their parents' ministry, both Ryan and Jessie asserted that their parents are good people who care about those who need help.

Ryan had an additional comment about his Ash Wednesday visit to the shelter.

"I saw a lot of nice people who are homeless," he said. "A lot of times I wonder why they're homeless. They're so nice, I can't see how it happened."

The biggest need at the shelter when it reopens in November will be for volunteers to staff each night. If you are interested in more information about this ministry, call the Bashors at (404) 373-8486.