With the season of giving here, Santa Clarita Valley residents were invited to tour the Bridge to Home Emergency Winter Shelter in Newhall and to help the nonprofit organization by donating necessary goods.

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Tom Scott stands next to the items that he and his wife are donating.

Canyon Country residents Karen Scott and her husband Tom Scott stopped by the shelter Sunday during the organization’s Open House.

The couple brought soap and toilet paper among other products that shelter officials requested.

“Everyone needs a little help sometimes,” Karen Scott said. “It’s a little something. Everyone needs something.”

Head of security and Lead Resident Assistant Chad Kidd was at Sunday’s Open House, along with a couple other Bridge to Home volunteers, to collect donations and give tours of the shelter. More than 25 different donors had brought items in.

The men’s dorms at the shelter have been full every night since Nov. 29, Kidd said. While the women’s dorms have not been full, the client number has been trending high than in 2013.

“I think it’s good for the community to just come here and see the site,” Kidd said. “I think a lot of times (people see) there’s a homeless person standing outside a shopping center but they don’t see how that person is living day to day. “

The Winter Shelter is open everyday at 6:00 p.m., according to the website.

“There are people in our community that have had bad luck, bad circumstances, bad choices that need the kind of help that Bridge to Home provides, “ said Bridge To HomeBoard Member Steve Tannehill.  “And that’s both the winter shelter you see here — a place to stay and get a meal — but also it’s much more than that. They provide a link to services, there’s caseworkers

Here is a list of the top ten things needed at the Bridge to Home Emergency Winter Shelter:

• 45 gallon trash bags
• Napkins
• Gallon zip lock bags
• Sandwich zip lock bags
• Socks (male only, women wear the same ones)
• Underwear (m & f)
• Gloves (non powder)
• Cereal (any variety)
• Oatmeal (any flavor)
• Sugar

“I think the Open House is important because it allows the community members to connect with the shelter, so they understand where their donations are going and how they’re being used,’ said Deputy Executive Director Annette Guzman. “It’s an outstanding turnout, we didn’t know quite what to expect but it’s just been a joy seeing the different people from the community coming in and saying ‘Oh, this is what the shelter looks like. Oh that’s where they sleep.’”

The Bridge to Home Emergency Winter Shelter is located at 23031 Drayton St. Santa Clarita, CA 91350.  The shelter’s hotline is 661-388-0080.

“The first lady came with her husband and said ‘My husband just recently lost his job but we wanted to just donate something.’ and they had donated two really big boxes of forks and spoons and I was just (thought) it’s so incredible how much these people have thought of these clients,” Guzman said. “They’re down on their luck but they still know there’s people less fortunate and they wanted to do something for them and it just really speaks to how incredible our community is.”

For more information about Bridge to Home, visit the website.