FARMINGTON – Churches plan to open two days a week this winter to help people stay warm, have a hot meal and socialize during some of the coldest and dreariest months of the year.

While people are away from home that day, the idea is for them to turn down their thermostats to save money on heat, said the Rev. Susan Crane, pastor of Henderson Memorial Baptist Church in Farmington.

The Henderson congregation voted Sunday to host the Warming Center at the Fellowship Hall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays during January 2009, Crane said.

Old South Congregational Church in Farmington plans to host the center at its Newman Wing in February, the same days and times as at Henderson.

Talks are ongoing with another church’s representatives in the Farmington Area Ecumenical Ministry to possibly host it in March, or at least manage the center at Old South.

“We were really excited about the Warming Center at Henderson,” the Rev. Cathie Wallace, pastor of Old South said. They did a needs assessment and this turned out to be a need, she added.

Crane spearheaded the effort to coordinate the center, the first in the area.

Organizers plan to work in teams with as many volunteers as possible to manage it.

“This all started last spring when our church formed a mission church team, and we’ve been involved in some training with other American Baptist churches to learn how to be more outwardly focused,” Crane said.

The church team spoke with people at different community agencies to determine community needs. They met with Tim Hardy, director of Franklin County Emergency Management Agency, Connie Jones of SeniorsPlus, Lisa Laflin, executive director of the United Way of the Tri-Valley Area, the Rev. Scott Planting, a representative on the board of 82 High Street, which provides for low-income housing, and members of the ecumenical ministry.

“Our church team was looking for a project that God would lead us to do in the community, a new ministry, an outreach project,” Crane said.

After learning there was a need for warming shelters in the community, they developed the idea.

SeniorsPlus will bring a meal to the church to be served family-style for a requested donation of $3 for people older than 60 or people with disabilities, and $3.50 for other guests.

“Since the church would have to heat the Fellowship Hall, Henderson decided we could host for eight days in January,” Crane said, using money from a $1,000 Harry Clark Grant.

“We have lots of activities that could happen. We may have a sing-along, We will have arts and crafts and knitting supplies. We will have some comfy chairs and reading materials, games, cards and jigsaw puzzles,” Crane said. “You don’t have to stay all day. You can come and go but we hope it is something they could look forward to.”

At Old South, they will hold the center in the Newman Wing, a Christian educational extension that is already heated, Wallace said.

There is a nursery for mothers and young children, a room of couches for those who need rest and there will be a help corner, she said.

The churches plan to bring in specialists – representatives of Low Income Home Energy Assistant Program, Medicare specialists, and others that could help people find the resources they need.

“I’m really excited about it. It is really a need in the community and it’s exciting to get together as churches and work together,” Wallace said.

Members of the volunteer Franklin County Citizen Emergency Response Team plan to help out and are putting together containers with material in them that could help people while away the time, county EMA special projects coordinator Sylvia Yeaton said.