News Photo by Diane Speer Sunrise Mission Executive Director John Ritter plans to retire Feb. 28 after 19 years of service. He is shown standing in front of a painting he created a couple of years before he took over the leadership role at the shelter. Ritter said the wildflowers represent people in all their varied colors and that the painting, which he hung in his office, has always brought to him a mindfulness of God and that everyone has a soul and an innate value.

News Photo by Diane Speer
Sunrise Mission Executive Director John Ritter plans to retire Feb. 28 after 19 years of service. He is shown standing in front of a painting he created a couple of years before he took over the leadership role at the shelter. Ritter said the wildflowers represent people in all their varied colors and that the painting, which he hung in his office, has always brought to him a mindfulness of God and that everyone has a soul and an innate value.

A licensed builder by trade, Ritter had served on the Sunrise Mission’s board for five years and knew first-hand the problems faced financially and perception-wise in the community. The shelter had just fired a problematic executive director, so at the request of the rest of the board, he agreed to fill in until a new hire could be made.

“It was winter, kind of a slow building time,” Ritter said. “They had a director who they had to fire, and they asked if I would take the post for a couple of months until they found someone. Then they told me, ‘We haven’t got any money and if you want to get paid, you’ll have to go out and find some.'”

That was 19 years ago. In the intervening years, Ritter believed so much in the cause that he decided to stay on as the executive director. He then committed himself to helping turn the shelter into a respected, supported and much needed community resource that serves an often invisible homeless population in Northeast Michigan.

Now, after having steered the mission forward, at age 68 he’s looking at his last few days on the job before his retirement next week. An open house is planned in his honor on Feb. 28 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at the shelter. The public is invited to stop by and offer congratulations to Ritter.

With Ritter’s retirement, Leslie Sheen steps in to fill the executive director role. She has served as assistant director for the last eight years. Brandon Maroney, an assistant pastor at Shoreline Wesleyan Church, will become the new assistant director. Ritter said he’s quite confident with both leaders, and that he appreciates the younger perspective Maroney brings to the table.

While Ritter doesn’t have concrete plans yet, he said he’s looking forward to retirement and that he hopes to do some traveling with his wife, Melinda, a retired Thunder Bay Junior High School teacher.

Within a year and a half of assuming leadership of the shelter, Ritter oversaw an addition that doubled the size of the space. He also helped to refurbish the existing rooms within the building.

“It was such a terrible building at the time,” he said. “It had old windows, only two bathrooms and when anyone used the tub upstairs it would leak down through the ceiling. There also were mice.”

The addition brought the total number of bathrooms to seven and made the structure significantly more energy efficient. It currently offers 33 beds.

It’s been much more than just about the physical building, however. Ritter sees the faith-based shelter as having provided a valuable service to many people during a difficult time in their lives and having helped them move forward.

“We’re the last stop before the street,” Ritter said. “Between 250 and 300 people come through here every year. That’s quite a few for a little town. A lot of the poverty is hidden.”

Shelter staff works with guests to improve their circumstances and to help them network with other social service agencies in the area.

“We just serve the people who come through the door – the poor, the addicted,” he said. “For whatever reason they land here, we give them a place to collect themselves. Life does get better for a lot of people. Their situation is better when they leave than when they come.”

They also offer optional Bible studies on site and the services of a chaplain who always has a willing ear to listen.

In recent years, the shelter has been planning for another addition which would provide an educational center. The addition design calls for a large vaulted ceiling space for congregate holiday meals and where children staying at the shelter could play during inclement weather. It also would have an area with computers for shelter residents to use while doing job searches.

Blueprints for the addition are expected to be completed soon. Ritter said he had hoped to see the project through to completion, but knew the time for his retirement had come. Looking back over the last 19 years, he expressed his gratitude to the public for their continued support of the shelter.

“The community has been very generous, and we were even blessed with part of an estate from someone we didn’t even know,” he said. “This is a generous place to live. A lot of people support us, and we are grateful.”