VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Years from now, a section of Green Run in Virginia Beach will look a lot greener, and it is thanks to a few hours of volunteering.
Fifty volunteers from Samaritan House, Lynnhaven River Now and Virginia Wesleyan University gathered Saturday morning near what's going to be called "The Hallow."
Still under construction, The Hallow will be the first shelter for youth human trafficking victims in the Mid-Atlantic, according to Samaritan House, the Virginia Beach nonprofit behind the project.
“We’re finding 50 adult victims a year and sometimes 20-25 children. So when that started occurring and our trafficking task force was finding more and more children, we knew there was a need," said Robin Gauthier, executive director for the organization that specializes in helping victims of domestic violence and human trafficking.
And the mission to fill that need would eventually reveal another.
In 2021, a study called the Heat Watch Project identified the area as an "urban heat island;" where unbearable heat in the summer is made worse because of an abundance of pavement and a lack of trees.
With help from the Virginia Department of Forestry, volunteers got together to plant 64 native trees in the vicinity of the shelter — the exact location of which is keeping hidden for security reasons.
“It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day coming up, so we have a weekend of service and this is one of the projects the students could help with this weekend. It’s great they came out even though it’s so cold," said Elizabeth Malcolm, Director of Sustainability for Virginia Wesleyan University.
Gauthier says the trees will also act as a protective barrier for child trafficking victims staying at The Hallow to find healing.
She also said that in a "best-case scenario," The Hallow could open as soon as the end of 2023.
