Southwest Youth Emergency Shelter (SwYES) development coordinator Betty McDougall, who played a major role in the opening of the youth shelter Dorie's House, will be retiring at the end of the month.

McDougall was tasked with helping SwYES get the shelter and up running for 14 to 17 year olds that are either homeless or at risk of becoming homeless. Now that the house is running, and with things set to quiet down a bit for the summer, McDougall plans to retire on Friday.

McDougall said she will still spend some time at the house in a volunteer capacity, but figured it was time to let somebody else take over the reigns.

"Summertime will probably be a little quieter," said McDougall. "It's a good time for a new staff person to come on and get things going the way they would like, and get things going and be ready for fall."

McDougall was approached by Tom and Charmaine Westbury about opening a shelter in honour of their mother, Doreen Westbury, a while ago. Dorie's House opened in January, so McDougall's main goal has been complete for a while now.

"My job in essence was done by about December," McDougall said. "But we knew by then we would not have the funding. the board asked if I would consider just staying on for a while, hiring the staff and getting Dorie's House up and running, so I agreed to do that."

"I think my real strength is in the developmental, and the creating and helping things get up and running," McDougall said.

So far McDougall said a "magnitude of youth" has been helped out by the shelter, but the board hasn't been able to secure any government funding, though they'll likely submit another proposal come October or November.

McDougall said they were at a "stand still" trying to set something up without government funding, but that Tom and Charmaine Westbury really made the dream a reality.

"The contribution those two young people made by organizing our contractors and tradespersons to build a house for us was just huge," McDougall said. "I don't know where we would be today if it weren't for them."

Now that McDougall will have a little more time on her hands, she hopes to kick back and relax.

"I'm going to sit with my feet up on our deck I think," she said. "Noone believes that that's going to happen, but I'd sure like to try."