By Mike Armstrong
Reporter, Carbon County Comet
Carbon County is huge and probably not the place a traveler wants to get stuck. A lot of our towns have limited hotel space and almost no bus service. Rawlins is the exception to both truths, but even then, until recently, it was not a town to get stuck in either.
Cars break down going across the country and can sometimes become cost-prohibitive to repair. Accidents happen and a person can find themselves stranded. All of it is a nightmare.
An organization founded in August of 2022 has changed this nightmare. Being stranded in a town is still stressful, but St. Christopher’s Highway of Carbon County (SCHCC) has made this bad situation much more tolerable.
SCHCC is in their words, “A community-wide faith-based collaborative providing shelter, transportation aid, meals, clothing and other assistance to those finding themselves stranded or passing through the Carbon County Wyoming community and in need.”
Shauna Roberts, a member of the organization said it was Reverend Bobbie Fitzugh that learned of the idea and wanted to try to implement helping those who were in need when they found themselves trapped in Carbon County. Roberts said Fitzugh enlisted the support of Chief of Rawlins Police Michael Ward along with others.
Again in the words of the organization, “SCHCC is now a functioning network of faith-based communities, social service agencies, governmental entities, non-profits and helping individuals focused on helping those in need. Travelers who find themselves in need are helped in compassionate and meaningful ways, rather than simply kicking them down the road to the next community or moving them from church to church for handouts.”
Roberts said there are several ways SCHCC helps those who are stranded. She said sometimes it can be as simple as filling up a gas tank. Other times it can be helping those stay overnight when the roads are closed and a hotel stay is not in the budget.
“The majority of the needs are things like gas and a hotel,” Roberts said. “Occasionally it is a bus ticket. What they have in common is the people didn’t plan on having this stop here. We have even had people who were in an accident and lost everything and ended up in a hospital. Once they get out sometimes they need a place to stay while they sort everything out. We provide this help.”
Flat tires are something they help with often.
Roberts said SCHCC can operate by doing fundraisers, and they have gotten a grant from the Episcopal Church and donations from companies around the County.
“Churches help too,” Roberts said. “A lot of times people contact churches first, so they help us too.”
Some hotels give contract rates and Sinclair has a gas card that gives a discount which helps offset the cost.
“We try to manage the money we get the best we can,” Roberts said. “Unfortunately Greyhound doesn’t have any contract situation with us.”
Going by bus is not always the cheapest way to go when leaving. Roberts recalled a time when it was cheaper to fly a person from Denver to Florida than have them use the bus.
“Last year, with the bad winter we had in Carbon County, the bus didn’t run through here for two or three weeks,” Roberts said. “You never know when they are going to cancel either.”
The organization is run by volunteers who run the phones and connect people to whom they should contact. They work 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week and then from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m., Mike Lujan, whom the organization calls “Midnight Mike”, takes on the shift 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
The Rawlins Police Department can also be contacted.
There is a dollar amount each volunteer is allowed. “We are prepared to help the best we can, so we are flexible to different situations.”
The organization is not strictly for Rawlins. All the communities are served. In Medicine Bow, the Virginian Hotel works with SCHCC and Roberts mentions a volunteer in Saratoga who will drive stranded people to Rawlins to get them a bus ticket so they can leave Carbon County.
The law enforcement officers in northern Carbon County will get people in contact with SCHCC and help them go where they need to.
“The harder thing with the outlying communities is that the bus doesn’t go by them,” Roberts said. “So a lot of times they have to be brought into Rawlins.”
The point of SCHCC is to help those stranded in Carbon County, no matter where they may be.
This organization takes on the mantle of being a good Carbon County Samaritan. It shows how residents who volunteer their time to help others in times of need, can really make a difference.
If a reader wants to help the organization financially send checks to SCHCC, PO Box 608, Rawlins, 82301.
Roberts said all donations are very appreciated.
