Photo courtesy of the Portage Health Foundation. Mary Niemela cuts the ribbon, officially opening the new location of the Barbara Kettle Gunlach Shelter Home in Calumet.

CALUMET — After years of careful planning and recent pandemic difficulties, the new location of the Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Home was able to officially open earlier this spring.

The Barbara Kettle Gundlach Shelter Home had been located at the historic Agassiz House in Calumet since 1983, and has been a funded shelter since 1980.

Executive Director Mary Niemela shared that, “when we got the building that we were in, the Agassiz House, which was donated to us, it was a great fit at that time. We are so thankful to the Gundlach Family for giving us the home.”

The search for a new location for the shelter came from a need for more space.

“It got too small,” she said. “Believe it or not, even a big building like that. We tried to leave it as historic as possible, but with two floors, it was harder to be able to accommodate everybody, then we were able to add a staff, so then we were more cramped in our office spaces. We’ve been looking at this building since 2013.,”

Finding a new, bigger location has been a dream since before Niemela was the executive director.

“Our former director and I used to make a hobby of looking at buildings to see what would be the best fit for the shelter,” she said. “It just turned out that Joe purchased the building we’re in. He was trying to decide what to do with it and I asked him, ‘can we look at it?’ He said sure, and at that time, we just really didn’t know what we were going to do, or how we were going to purchase the building.

“When our former director retired in 2014, I looked at it again, and again, not knowing what to do with it, I brought the building inspector and plumbing inspector through. We went through the building, and then it sat again, as just a thought. And then in 2016 we looked at it again, and the former owner had put apartments in there. There was a two bedroom apartment and a one bedroom apartment put in the building, and then a big open space. A lot of the work was already done for us.”

In late 2019, the shelter home was about to initiate the buying process of the house when the pandemic began.

“We decided we would wait because we didn’t know what this was,” Niemala said. “We, as a shelter, wouldn’t get closed down because we’re an essential service. We just didn’t know what was going on, and everybody was affected by it.

“We waited until mid summer. We had already put earnest money down, so we knew it was going to happen. It was just a matter of when.”

The shelter home began working with OHM in August to initiate the moving process.

“OHM drew up the plans and in October, we signed the purchase agreement,” said Niemala. “It just started to go from there. We got REJ Construction, and they were done in just 71 days.”

Northern Heating and Plumbing, Wilmer’s Heating, and Keweenaw Power and Lighting worked on the shelter as well.

The funds for the new house largely came from community donations and fundraisers put on by the shelter. The shelter has an outstanding $15,000 left on the over $66,000 purchase.

“We’re still holding some fundraisers and getting donations to help with that,” Niemela said. “Portage Health Foundation and the community have been instrumental in working with us, especially through the pandemic.”

Community donations haven’t only been money.

“The community has donated pictures for our walls,” she said. “We’re looking for photos of our local community, whether it be the bridge or the canal, snow, birds, or whatever. That’s what we’re putting on the walls, and the Portage Health Foundation donated four pictures.”

The community aided the shelter home again when it came to the moving process, Niemela said.

“We have such a generous community,” she said. “We were moving things over little by little, and MTU’s Husky Helpers came during Make a Difference Day and probably saved us around $5,000 with the help they gave us.”

The pandemic has been hard on the shelter, but it survived. The BKGSH has received funding from the CARES Act, the American Rescue Act, and state and local fundings that have allowed the shelter to remain open, as well as to prepare for the pandemic’s spacing and sanitation requirements.

Niemela and those at the shelter are looking forward to functions after the pandemic.

“Getting back to face-to-face contact will be really good,” she said. “In the beginning, we were having to put people up in motels rather than bringing them right into shelter and for a period of time so they could isolate themselves. Now we’ve all been vaccinated through the health department. Hopefully by this summer we’ll be back to normal here, and the new house is so much bigger.”

Niemela stated that the BKGSH’s dream of moving into the new location wouldn’t have been possible without the community.

“I just want to thank the community for all their support throughout this whole thing, and their understanding with everything we’ve had to do to keep everyone in the shelter safe,” Niemala said. “We’re thankful to those who helped us move, and painted the building. We’ve had an enormous amount of volunteers and people through Tech.

“Volunteer time is very important to us, and we’re always looking for volunteers. People who had been volunteering but had to stay away during the pandemic are coming back. It’s just been a wonderful experience, knowing that there’s so many people out there supporting us.

“If anybody does need help, our numbers are the same. Our crisis line is 906-337-5623, and our business line is 906-337-5632,” said Niemala.