DATE: Tuesday, September 23, 1997           TAG: 9709230223

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LINDA McNATT, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   55 lines

STRANDED FAMILY SHOWERED WITH KINDNESSCOUPLE AND THEIR CHILDREN ARE GIVEN FOOD, CLOTHING, OFFERS OF JOBS AND EVEN A TRUCK.

Richard and Christine Shaver and four of their five children - stuck last week in Hampton Roads with no jobs, no money and nowhere to stay - received food, money, offers of a place to stay and job offers after their plight was publicized.

The Shavers were even given a pickup truck - old, but in good mechanical condition - complete with temporary tags.

``It has been overwhelming,'' Christine Shaver said Monday. ``People here are just so nice.''

The Shavers spent the day checking out job offers and planning to make Hampton Roads their new home.

The family came to the area because Richard had been offered a construction job that he thought was in Chesapeake. Christine, trying to get the family back on its feet, had started working as his helper.

When the Chesapeake job was filled, they went to work in Newport News. But that job lasted only two days.

By then, the Shavers, traveling with four of their five children, had run out of money. Chris Shaver resorted to standing next to a highway interchange in Suffolk with a cardboard sign, pleading for help.

When The Virginian-Pilot published a story about them, the Shavers were staying at a motel, paid for by a local church.

Almost immediately, Chris Shaver said, a Good Samaritan called the motel to pay for an additional six days.

Meanwhile, the Shavers were contacted by Suffolk's Super 8 motel with an offer of a room with a microwave and refrigerator for a week, to give them time to find jobs and a place to stay. The staff, led by manager Gloria Trent, collected food and money for them.

Marlena Sharpe, a motel employee, said, ``This little family was trying so hard to get back on their feet.''

The days paid at the first motel will be handed over to the Salvation Army, Chris Shaver said, ``for some other family when they need it. I want to try to help somebody else now.''

Two years ago, the Shavers invested their life's savings in a small home in Draper, Va. They thought they were buying a future for their youngsters.

The children could go to school and grow up in a small town where everybody knew and took care of everybody else.

But things didn't work out as the Shavers planned. The economy around Draper, in Pulaski County, slowed. Richard was unable to find work near home. They lost the house.

Last week, they learned a valuable lesson, Chris Shaver said Monday: ``There are good people everywhere.'' MEMO: An account for the family has been set up at Central Fidelity

Bank, 201 N. Main St., Suffolk, Va. 23434. KEYWORDS: HOMELESS FAMILY

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