EUREKA - If the holidays embody the spirit of giving, it's Christmas year round at Eureka's homeless shelter.

Heart House, 300 Reagan Drive, gives a temporary home to six families or 21 people and victims of domestic violence. Heartline, its companion program, serves people who are living in their own homes but need help with rent, food, clothing or other expenses.

"I am personally involved in all of them," director Jennifer A. Gholson-Kozik said. "They break my heart; they make me proud. They cause me headaches, stressful nights. Some of them are extremely hard to like, but I have to say that I love them all."

Kozik, a Eureka native, can relate to her clients, having gone to the shelter with her own daughter and becoming a full-time house parent in 1995. She eventually was named to the Heart House board and spent eight years working for Junior Achievement in Peoria before taking the director's post here three years ago.

"I think the thing that people don't always remember (is) it could be them at any time," Kozik said. "It could be their sister or brother or own child. We have to be treating them the way that they want their family member to be treated."

Heart House and Heartline work closely with the Eureka Food Pantry, Woodford County Extension and other area social service agencies.

The biggest problem this year is helping clients deal with utility bills that have gotten out of control. She has seen about 30 families shut off from power in the last several weeks.

"They borrow from every person they can imagine," Kozik said. "They get church money. And when that's not enough, they have to resort to having it turned on in someone else's name. Companies don't like it when they do that. It makes it hard for them to get help later on because you have to have a bill in your name in order for us to help you."

Heart House, which opened in 1992, and Heartline, open since 1982, have four paid staff members, an annual budget of $150,000, more than 40 volunteers and a 10-member board of directors. They are funded entirely by donations from a small FEMA grant, corporations, individuals and churches. Eureka United Fund has pledged $3,000 to each program and they split all the proceeds from the Woodford County Journal Spirit of Christmas campaign with the Eureka Food Pantry. Another Christmas fund provides stockings and food baskets.

Heart House and Heartline serve all of Woodford County, while Heart House also serves residents of the Washington city limits. Eureka Food Pantry serves residents of Unit District 140 towns.

To volunteer or contribute, call (309) 467-6101.