The Day joins the southeastern Connecticut community in offering its congratulations to Rev. Catherine Zall and Rev. Michel Belt, who will be honored tonight as the 2015 recipients of the William Crawford Distinguished Service Award.

The Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut annually presents the award “to an outstanding member of the community who has contributed to the quality of life in our region as well as to his or her neighbors.”

In giving the award this year to two people, the chamber recognizes the combined efforts of Rev. Zall and Rev. Belt in sheltering the region’s homeless, at times in the midst of opposition and controversy.

By helping those who society does not always view as neighbors and approaching this difficult challenge with compassionate hearts, Rev. Zall and Rev. Belt recognized, as did Mother Teresa of Calcutta, that the suffering of those forced to live on the streets goes beyond their physical homelessness.

“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty,” said Mother Teresa.

When a homeless man froze to death during the winter of 2006, the St. James Episcopal Church in New London, under the leadership of Rev. Belt, converted its parish hall into a homeless shelter. Though originally envisioned as temporary, the shelter would remain open until 2013 when a permanent shelter opened.

Reflective of the spirit in which they welcomed those in need, Rev. Belt and Rev. Zall, who has served as the executive director since those early years, referred to the facility as a “hospitality center.” When some in the community, including elected leaders, challenged their good work as contributing to the “homeless problem,” the pair courageously persisted.

In time, they led a transformation. What is now the New London Homeless Hospitality Center on State Pier Road in New London, housed in a former church, does more than provide shelter for adults. It also develops a strategy and the community support necessary to help its guests escape homelessness. Meanwhile, its staff works with other organizations to try to prevent individuals from becoming homeless to begin with.

Rev. Zall remains the executive director, while Rev. Belt recently retired to New Jersey.

For their tenacity, empathy, optimism, faith in God and in humanity, the Rev. Catherine Zall and Rev. Michel Belt are the most fitting of honorees.