More than 30,000 people a year walk through the doors or need help from Covenant House in Charleston. It takes more than 200 volunteers to keep the organization running.

Covenant House celebrates its 25th anniversary on May 3 in a public event at the Capitol Center Theater. But to say thanks to the volunteers, founders and church members who keep the place in business, Covenant House staff are holding a special get-together from 1 to 3 p.m. April 27 at the organization's drop-in center on Shrewsbury Street.

“The work of Covenant House would not be as full and as deep — or even possible — without the quality of the volunteers we've had over the years,” said Covenant House co-founder Pat Hussey, who along with founder Barbara Ferraro is giving up the helm of the charitable organization to devote more time to family.

Hussey and Ferraro, former nuns, started Covenant House in 1981 as a place to help those who were falling through the cracks of other local agencies. Covenant House planted the seeds for West Virginia Health Right and Kanawha Hospice, opened the state's first residential program for people with AIDS and helped start the Sojourner's shelter for women and children.

Along the way, the organi- zation went from a group with a $40,000 budget and 50 volunteers to an organization with more than 200 volunteers and an annual budget of more than $1 million. More than 30 churches and temples contribute to Covenant House's food pantry, clothing closet and emergency assistance fund.

“I met Barbara and Pat when my dad was dying of cancer,” said photographer and graphic designer Michael Switzer, whose father, Roger Switzer, ran the Charleston Housing Authority for years. “We were having dinner one day, and he said, 'If you want to see two people who are doing the work of Christ, there they are.'”

Now 38, Switzer does most of Covenant House's photography and graphic work, from designing pamphlets and brochures to coming up with logos. “I really believe in the broad sense of the work they're doing,” he said. “I thought volunteering was a way for me to get involved more with the things God wants us to do in the world.”

Kathryn Stone has been a volunteer since the 1990s, and spent seven years on the Covenant House board of directors. A representative of the Unitarian Universalist congregation, she still spends two hours a month helping pass out food at the organization's food bank, located at First Presbyterian Church. Lately, she said, the food pantry is seeing more clients. More and more, well-dressed, seemingly middle-class people are coming in, and seem almost embarrassed to be asking for help.

“People are losing jobs and having to go to food pantries who heretofore would not have had to,” she said. “I can't say enough to praise Pat and Barbara, their organization and their total commitment to the community.”

Sue Price, another longtime Covenant House volunteer, agrees hard times have sent more people to Covenant House. “We just had someone come in from South Hills for several months,” she said. “They couldn't afford to get their water line fixed.”

Price, a retired teacher, volunteers at the front desk of the drop-in center, where more than 50 people a day walk through the door. Some just need to do a load of laundry or take a shower.

Lewis Payne is a 36-year-old lawyer and owner of a natural resources land management company who also helps man the front desk. Though his personal politics don't always agree with the founders, “I like spending time there because I know it's for a wonderful cause,” he said.

“They look for things that are needed in the community that fill a void,” Payne said. “If that service isn't needed anymore, they'll stop doing it or spin it off into something else.”

Staff and volunteers have a familiar refrain in talking about Covenant House's reputation in the community. The organization is a success, they say, because of strong leadership, programming that really helps people in need and sound financial management.

“If you give money to Covenant House, you know it will be well spent, and it will be spent on the clients, not on frivolous stuff,” said Stone.