‘Good Morning America’ segment to focus on director of Lawrence’s homeless shelter

Friday night fundraiser

The Lawrence Community Shelter will host a large dinner and dancing fundraiser on Friday.

The event will begin at 6 p.m. Friday at the Oread Hotel, 12O0 Oread Avenue. The event will honor Lawrence residents and shelter supporters John and Deanell Tacha.

The evening also will feature an auction of several items donated by area businesses and residents, including a private dinner with Kansas University basketball player Brady Morningstar and other members of the team.

Tickets are $75. For more information, call the shelter at 832-8864.

The Lawrence Community Shelter’s efforts to raise money for a new $3 million shelter will get a nationwide boost.

Shelter director Loring Henderson will be the subject of a profile by ABC’s “Good Morning America” program in early May.

“Good Morning America” co-host George Stephanopoulos will be in Lawrence as part of a series that profiles people who have been mentors in the lives of ABC personalities, Henderson said.

“It is supposed to be very much about me and George, but I’m going to do everything I can to make it about homelessness in Lawrence,” Henderson said.

Henderson said an ABC news producer told him that a crew would be in town during the week of May 10 and that the profile was tentatively scheduled to air May 18.

Henderson said the timing hardly could be better. The shelter hopes to win final approval Tuesday evening for a permit that would allow the shelter to relocate to a warehouse next to the Douglas County Jail in eastern Lawrence. Upon final approval, an aggressive fundraising campaign is expected to begin.

“It is keen,” Henderson said. “It is wonderful. I think it could help us a lot. Certainly we’ll talk a lot about the shelter and how it fits into the scene here and the vision.”

Henderson and Stephanopoulos have known each other since the early 1980s, when Stephanopoulos was a Washington, D.C., intern and Henderson was working in D.C. government.

“I was volunteering at a soup kitchen, and he wanted to do some volunteer work,” Henderson said. “So, I took him along.”

The two have stayed in touch ever since.

“He is an extremely smart man,” Henderson said. “He is the type of person you certainly thought would go far. But the biggest thing is he is very decent.”

Stephanopoulos in 2009 came to Lawrence as part of a fundraising event for the shelter, and then donated $100,000 to the effort.

Henderson said this latest venture makes him nervous, but only because he’s uncomfortable about the attention it may shine on him.

“My first reaction when George called was to say no,” Henderson said. “But I can’t say no to George. He’s been so generous to us. And it is for a good cause. We need to publicize the work that is being done with the homeless.”